MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC   FORCES 


MYSTERIOUS 
PSYCHIC     FORCES 

AN   ACCOUNT   OF  THE   AUTHOR'S    INVESTIGATIONS  IN 

PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH,  TOGETHER  WITH  THOSE 

OF  OTHER  EUROPEAN  SAVANTS 

BY 

CAMILLE    FLAMMARION 

Director  of  Observatory  of  Jovisy, 
France.  Author  of  '^  The  Un- 
known,''*  '•^The  Atmosphere"  etc. 


BOSTON 

SMALL,   MAYNARD  AND   COMPANY 

1907 


Copyright,  1907, 
By  Small,  Maynard  &  Co. 


All  right!  reserved. 


^O 


UBRAIIT 


THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.  S.  A. 


He  who  'pronounces  anything  to  he  "  impossible/'  outside 
of  the  field  of  pure  mathematics,  is  wanting  in  prudence. 

Fraitcois  Aeago. 

A  learned  pedant  who  laughs  at  the  possible  comes  very 
near  being  an  idiot.  To  purposely  shun  a  fact,  and  turn 
one's  back  upon  it  with  a  supercilious  smile,  is  to  bankrupt 
Truth. 

Victor  Hugo. 

Science  is  under  bonds,  by  the  eternal  principles  of  honor, 
to  look  fearlessly  in  the  face  every  problem  that  is  presented 
to  her. 

Sir  William  Thompsoit. 


180877 


I 


PKEFACE 

The  subject  treated  in  the  following  pages  has  made  great 
progress  in  the  course  of  forty  years.  ^N'ow  what  we  are  con- 
cerned  with  in  psychical  studies  is  always  unknown  forces, 
and  these  forces  must  belong  to  the  naturaLprder,  for  nature 
embraces  the  entire  universe^  and  everything  is  therefore  un- 
der the  sway  of  her  sceptre. 

I  do  not  conceal  from  myself,  however,  that  the  present 
work  will  excite  discussion  and  bring  forth  legimate  ob- 
jections, and  will  only  satisfy  independent  and  unbiased  in- 
vestigators. But  nothing  is  rarer  upon  our  planet  than  an 
independent  and  absolutely  untrammelled  mind,  nor  is  any- 
thing rarer  than  a  true  scientific  spirit  of  inquiry,  freed  from 
all  personal  interest.  Most  readers  will  say :  "  What  is 
there  in  these  studies,  anyway?  The  lifting  of  tables,  the 
moving  of  various  pieces  of  furniture,  the  displacement  of 
easy-chairs,  the  rising  and  falling  of  pianos,  the  blowing 
about  of  curtains,  mysterious  rappings,  responses  to  mental 
questions,  dictations  of  sentences  in  reverse  order,  apparitions 
of  hands,  of  heads,  or  of  spectral  figures, —  these  are  only 
common  place  trivialities  or  cheap  hoaxes,  unworthy  to  oc- 
cupy the  attention  of  a  scientist  or  scholar.  And  what  would 
it  all  prove  even  if  it  were  true  ?  That  kind  of  thing  does 
not  interest  us." 

Well,  there  are  people  upon  whose  heads  the  sky  might 
tumble  without  causing  them  any  unusual  emotion. 

But  I  reply :  What !  is  it  nothing  to  know,  to  prove,  to 
see  with  one's  own  eyes,  that  there  are  unknown  forces  around 
us  ?     Is  it  nothing  to  study  our  own  proper  nature  and  our 

V 


vi  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

own  faculties?  Are  not  the  mysterious  problems  of  our 
being  such  as  are  worthy  to  be  inscribed  on  the  program  of 
our  investigation,  and  of  having  devoted  to  them  laborious 
nights  and  days  ?  Of  course,  the  independent  seeker  gets  no 
thanks  from  anybody  for  his  toil.  But  what  of  that  ?  We 
work  for  the  pleasure  of  working,  of  fathoming  the  secrets 
of  nature,  and  of  instructing  ourselves.  When,  in  studying 
the  double  stars  at  the  Paris  Observatory  and  cataloguing 
these  celestial  twins,  I  established  for  the  first  time  a  natural 
classification  of  those  distant  orbs ;  when  I  discovered  stellar 
systems,  composed  of  several  stars,  swept  onward  through 
immensity  by  one  common  impulse;  when  I  studied  the 
planet  Mars  and  compared  all  the  observations  made  during 
two  hundred  years  in  order  to  obtain  at  once  an  analysis 
and  a  synthesis  of  this  next-door  neighbor  of  ours  among 
the  planets ;  when,  in  examining  the  effect  of  solar  radiations 
I  created  the  new  branch  of  physics  to  which  has  been  given 
the  name  "  radioculture  "  and  caused  variations  of  the  most 
radical  and  sweeping  nature  in  the  dimensions,  the  forms, 
and  the  colors  of  certain  plants;  when  I  discovered  that  a 
grasshopper,  eviscerated  and  kept  in  straw  did  not  die,  and 
that  these  insects  can  live  for  a  fortnight  after  having  had 
their  heads  cut  off ;  when  I  planted  in  a  conservatory  of  the 
Museum  of  Xatural  History,  in  Paris,  one  of  the  ordinary 
oaks  of  our  woods  (quercus  rohur),  thinking  that,  if  with- 
drawTi  from  the  changes  of  seasons,  it  would  always  have 
green  leaves  (a  thing  which  everybody  can  prove), —  when 
I  was  doing  these  things  I  was  working  for  my  own  per- 
sonal pleasure ;  but  that  is  no  reason  why  these  studies  have 
not  been  useful  in  the  developing  work  of  science,  and  no 
reason  for  their  not  being  admitted  within  the  scope  of  the 
practical  w^ork  of  specialists. 

It  is  the  same  with  these  psychical  studies  of  ours;  only 
there  is  a  little  more  passion  and  prejudice  connected  with 


PREFACE  vii 

them.  On  the  one  hand,  the  sceptics  cleave  fast  to  their 
denials,  convinced  that  they  know  all  the  forces  of  nature, 
that  all  mediums  are  humbugs,  and  all  experimenters  im- 
beciles. On  the  other  hand,  there  are  the  credulous  Spirit-  X 
ualists,  who  imagine  they  always  have  spirits  at  their  beck 
and  call  in  a  centre-table,  who  evoke,  with  the  utmost  sang- 
froid, the  spirits  of  Plato,  Zoroaster,  Jesus  Christ,  St.  Augus- 
tine, Charlemagne,  Shakespeare,  ISTewton,  or  Xapoleon,  and 
who  set  about  stoning  me  for  the  tenth  or  twentieth  time, 
affirming  that  I  am  sold  to  the  Institute  on  account  of  a  deep- 
seated  and  obstinate  ambition,  and  that  I  dare  not  declare 
myself  in  favor  of  the  identity  of  the  spirits  for  fear  of  an- 
noying my  illustrious  friends.  The  individuals  of  this  class 
refuse  to  be  satisfied  just  as  much  as  the  first  class. 

So  much  the  worse  for  them  !  I  insist  on  only  saying  what 
I  know ;  but  I  do  say  this. 

And  if  what  I  know  is  displeasing,  so  much  the  worse  for 
the  prejudices,  the  general  ignorance,  and  the  good  breeding 
of  these  distinguished  gentry,  in  whose  eyes  the  maximum 
of  happiness  consists  in  an  increase  of  their  fortune,  the 
pursuit  of  lucrative  places,  sensual  pleasures,  automobile- 
racing,  a  box  at  the  Opera,  or  five-o'clock  teas  at  a  fashion- 
able restaurant,  and  whose  lives  are  frittered  away  along 
paths  that  never  cross  those  of  the  rapt  idealist,  and  who 
never  know  the  pure  satisfaction  of  his  mind  and  heart,  or 
the  pleasures  of  thought  and  feeling. 

As  for  me,  a  humble  student  of  the  prodigious  problem 
of  the  universe,  I  am  only  a  seeker.  What  are  we  ?  We 
have  scarcely  shed  a  ray  more  of  light  on  this  point  than  at 
the  time  when  Socrates  laid  down,  as  a  principle,  the  maxim, 
Know  thyself, —  notwithstanding  we  have  measured  the  dis- 
tances of  the  stars,  analyzed  the  sun,  and  weighed  the  worlds 
of  space.  Does  it  stand  to  reason  that  the  knowledge  of  our- 
selves shoidd  interest  us  less  than  that  of  the  macrocosm^  the 


viii  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

external  world  ?  It  is  not  credible.  Let  ns  therefore  study 
on,  convinced  that  all  sincere  research  will  further  the  prog- 
ress of  humanity. 

•    Juvisy  Observatory,  December,  1906. 


CONTENTS 


Page 
Preface v 

Introduction xiii 

Chapteb 

I.    On  Certain  Unknown  Natural  Forces 1 


II.    My  First  Seances  In  The  Allen  Kardec  Group,  And 

With  The  Mediums  Of  That  Epoch 24 

III.  My  Experiments  With  Eusapia  Paladino 63 

IV.  Other  Seances  With  Eusapia  Paladino 135 

V.    Frauds,   Tricks,   Deceptions,  Impostures,   Feats    Of 

Legerdemain,  Mystifications,  Impediments     .     .  194 

VI.    The  Experiments  Of  Count  De  Gasparin      ....  229 

VII.    The  Researches  Of  Professor  Thury 266 

Vni.    The    Experiments    Of    The  Dialectical    Society   Of 

London 289 

IX.    The  Experiments  Of  Sir  William  Crookes    ....  306 

X.    Sundry  Experiments  And  Observations 352 

XI.    My   General   Inquiry   Respecting    Observations    Of 

Unexplained  Phenomena 376 

XII.    Explanatory  Hypotheses  —  Theories  And  Doctrines 

—  Conclusions  Of  The  Author 406 

Index 455 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Plate  I.  Complete  Levitation  of  a  Table  in  Professor 
Flammarion's  Salon  through  Mediumship  of  Eusapia 
Paladino Facing  page        8 

Plate  II.  House  of  Zoroastre  of  Jupiter  from  Somnambu- 
listic Drawing  by  Victorien  Sardou      .     .     .    After  page       26 

Plate  III.  Animals'  Quarters.  House  of  Zoroastre  of 
Jupiter  from  Somnambulistic  Drawing  by  Victorien 
Sardou After  page      26 

Figure  1.     The  Inclination  of  the  System  of  Uranus    .Page       54 

Figure  la.  Orbits  of  Satellites  of  Uranus  as  Seen  from  the 
Earth Page      56 

Plate  IV.  Plaster  Cast  of  Imprint  Made  in  Putty  without 
Contact  by  the  Medium  Eusapia  Paladino    .     After  page      76 

Plate  V.  Eusapia  Paladino,  Showing  Resemblance  to  the 
Imprint  in  Putty After  page       76 

Plate  VI.  Photographs  Taken  by  M.  G.  de  Fontenay  of  an 
Experiment  in  Table  Levitation    ....     Facing  page      82 

Plate  VII.  Plaster  Casts  of  Impressions  in  Clay  Produced 
by  an  Unknown  Force Facing  page     138 

Plate  VIII.  Drawing  from  Photograph,  Showing  Method 
of  Control  by  Professors  Lombroso  and  Richet  of  Eusapia. 
Table  Completely  Raised Facing  page     154 

!  Plate  IX.  Photographs  of  Levitation  of  Table  Accompany- 
ing Colonel  De  Rochas'  Report    ....    Facing  page     174 

Plate  X.  Scales  Used  in  Professor  Flammarion's  Experi- 
ments     Facing  page     200 


Xll  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Plate  XL  Method  Used  by  Eusapia  to  Surreptitiously  Free 
her  Hand Facing  page     206 

Plate  XII.  Cage  of  Copper  Wire,  Electrically  Charged, 
Used  by  Professor  Crookes  in  the  Home  Accordion 
Experiment Facing  page     308 

Figure  3.  Board  and  Scale  Experiment  of  Sir  William 
Crookes Page     312 

Figures  4  and  5.  Instruments  Used  in  Scale  Experiment 
by  Sir  William  Crookes Page         5 

Figure  6.     Glass  Vessel  Used  by  Home     ....     Page    318 

Figure  7.  Automatically  Registered  Chart  of  Unknown 
Force  Generated  by  Mr.  Home Page     317 

Figures  8,  9,  10.  Charts  from  Sir  William  Crookes  Instru- 
ments Used  in  Experiments  with  Mr.  Home     .     .     Page     321 

Figures  11  and  12.  Third  Instrument  Devised  by  Sir 
William  Crookes  for  Recording  Automatically  the  Un- 
known Force  Generated  by  Home Page     322 

Figures  13.     Charts  Made  by  Third  Instrument       .     Page     323 

Figures  14  and  15.     Charts  Made  by  Third  Instrument  Page     324 

IMate  XIII.  Instantaneous  Photograph  Taken  by  M.  de 
Fontenay  of  Table  Levitation  Produced  by  the  Medium 
Auguste  Politi Facing  page     368 


INTRODUCTION 

As  long  ago  as  1865  I  published,  under  the  title,  Unlcnown 
Natural  Forces^  a  little  monograph  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
;pages  which  is  still  occasionally  found  in  the  book-shops,  but 
has  not  been  reprinted.  I  reprint  here  (pp.  xiii-xxiii),what  I 
wrote  at  that  time  in  this  critical  study  "  apropos  of  the 
phenomena  produced  by  the  Davenport  brothers  and  medi- 
ums in  general."  It  was  published  by  Didier  &  Co.,  book- 
sellers to  the  Academy,  who  had  already  issued  my  first  two 
works.  The  Plurality  of  Inhabited  ^yorlds  and  Imaginary 
Worlds  and  Real  Worlds. 

"  France  has  just  been  engaged  in  an  exciting  debate, 
where  the  sound  of  voices  was  dro^vned  in  a  great  uproar, 
and  out  of  which  no  conclusion  has  emerged.  A  disputation 
more  noisy  than  intelligent  has  been  raging  around  a  whole 
group  of  unexplained  facts,  and  so  completely  muddled  the 
problem  that,  in  place  of  illuminating  it,  the  debate  has  only 
served  to  shroud  it  in  deeper  darkness. 

I"  During  the  discussion  a  singular  remark  was  fre- 
quently heard,  to  the  effect  that  those  who  shouted  the  loud- 
est in  this  court  of  assize  were  the  very  ones  who  were  least 
informed  on  the  subject.  It  was  an  amusing  spectacle  to  see 
these  persons  in  a  death-grapple  with  mere  phantoms. 
Panurge  himself  would  have  laughed  at  it. 

"  The  result  of  the  matter  is  that  less  is  known  to-day  up- 
on the  subject  in  dispute  than  at  the  opening  of  the  debates. 
"  In  the  mean  time,  seated  upon  neighboring  heights  were 
certain  excellent  old  fellows  who  observed  the  writs  of  arrest 

xiii 


xiv  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES  ^ 

issued  against  the  more  violent  combatants,  but  who  remained 
for  the  most  part  grave  and  silent,  though  they  occasionally 
smiled,  and  withal  did  a  deal  of  hard  thinking. 

*'  I  am  going  to  state  what  weight  should  be  given  to  the 
opinions  of  those*  of  us  who  do  not  rashly  affirm  the  impossi- 
bility of  the  facts  now  put  under  the  ban  and  who  do  not  add 
their  voices  to  the  dominant  note  of  opposition.' 

"  I  do  not  conceal  from  myself  the  consequences  of  such 
sincerity.  It  requires  a  good  deal  of  boldness  to  insist  on 
affirming,  in  the  name  of  positive  science,  the  possibility  of 
these  phenomena  (wrongly  styled  supernatural),  and  to  con- 
stitute one's  self  the  champion  of  a  cause  apparently  ridicu- 
lous, absurd,  and  dangerous,  knowing,  at  the  same  time,  that 
the  avowed  adherents  of  said  cause  have  little  standing  in 
science,  and  that  even  its  eminent  partisans  only  venture  to 
speak  of  their  approval  of  it  with  bated  breath.  However, 
since  the  matter  has  just  been  treated  momentarily  in 
fugitive  writings  by  a  group  of  journalists  whose  exacting 
labors  wholly  forbid  a  study  of  the  psychic  and  physical 
forces ;  and  since,  of  all  this  multitude  of  writers,  the  greater 
part  have  only  heaped  error  upon  error,  puerility  upon  ex- 
travagance; and  since  it  appears  from  every  page  they  have 
written  (I  hope  they  will  pardon  me)  that  not  only  are 
they  ignorant  of  the  very  a,  h,  c  of  the  subject  they  have  • 
so  fantastically  treated,  but  their  opinions  upon  this  class 
of  facts  rest  upon  no  basis  whatever, —  therefore  I  have 
thought  it  would  serve  a  purpose  if  I  should  leave,  as  a  sou- 
venir of  the  long  wrangle,  a  piece  of  writing  better  based 
and  buttressed  than  the  lucubrations  of  the  above-mentioned 
gentlemen.  As  a  lover  of  truth,  I  am  willing  to  face  a  thou- 
sand reproaches.  Be  it  distinctly  understood  that  I  do  not 
for  a  moment  deem  my  judgment  superior  to  that  of  my 
confreres,  some  of  whom  are  in  other  respects  highly  gifted. 
The  simple  fact  is  that  they  are  not  familiar  with  this  sub- 


introductio:n"       '  xv 

ject,  but  are  straying  in  it  at  random,  wandering  through 
a  strange  region.  Thej  misunderstand  the  very  terminol- 
ogy, and  imagine  that  facts  long  ago  well  authenticated  are 
impossible.  By  way  of  contrast,  the  writer  of  these  lines 
will  state  that  for  several  years  he  has  been  engaged  in  dis- 
cussions and  experiments  upon  the  subject.  (I  am  not 
speaking  of  historical  studies. ) 

"  Moreover,  although  the  old  saw  would  have  us  believe 
that  ^  it  is  not  always  desirable  to  state  the  truth,'  yet,  to 
speak  frankly,  I  am  so  indignant  at  the  overweening  pre- 
sumption of  certain  polemical  opponents,  and  at  the  gall 
they  have  injected  into  the  debate,  that  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
rise  and  point  out  to  the  deceived  public  that,  without  a 
single  exception,  all  the  arguments  brought  up  by  these 
writers,  and  upon  which  they  have  boldly  planted  their  ban- 
ner of  victory,  prove  absolutely  nothing,  nothing,  against 
the  possible  truth  of  the  things  which  they,  in  the  fury  of 
their  denial,  have  so  perverted.  Such  a  snarl  of  opinions 
must  be  analyzed.  In  brief,  the  true  must  be  disentangled 
from  the  false.      Veritas,  Veritas!  " 

"  I  hasten  to  anticipate  a  criticism  on  the  part  of  my  read- 
ers by  apprising  them,  on  the  threshold  of  this  plea,  that  I 
am  not  going  to  take  the  Davenport  brothers  as  my  subject, 
but  only  as  the  ostensible  motive  or  pretext  of  the  discus- 
sion,—  as  they  have  been,  for  that  matter,  of  the  majority 
of  the  discussions.  I  shall  deal  in  these  pages  with  the  facts 
brought  to  the  surface  again  by  these  two  Americans, — 
facts  inexplicable  (which  they  have  put  on  the  stage  at  Herz 
Hall  here  in  Paris,  but  which  none  the  less  existed  before 
this  mise-en-scene,  and  which  none  the  less  w^ill  exist  even 
should  the  Davenport  brothers'  representations  prove  to  be 
counterfeit), —  things  which  others  had  already  exhibited, 
and  still  exhibit  with  as  much  facility  and  under  much  bet- 
ter conditions  J  occurrences,  in  short,   which  constitute  the 


xYi  ]^rYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOUCES 

domain  of  the  unknowTi  forces  to  which  have  been  given, 
one  after  another,  live  or  six  names  explaining  nothing. 
These  forces,  raind  you,  are  as  real  as  the  attraction  of 
gravitation,  and  as  invisible  as  that.  It  is  about  facts  that 
I  here  concern  myself.  Let  them  be  brought  to  the  light  by 
Peter  or  by  Paul,  it  concerns  us  little;  let  them  be  imitated 
by  Sosie  *  or  parodied  by  Harlequin,  still  less  does  it  con- 
cern us.  The  question  is.  Do  these  facts  exist,  and  do  they 
enter  into  the  category  of  known  physical  forces  ? 

"  It  amazes  me,  every  time  I  think  of  it,  that  the  majority 
of  men  are  so  densely  ignorant  of  the  psychic  phenomena  in 
question,  considering  the  fact  that  they  have  been  known, 
studied,  valued,  and  recorded  for  a  good  long  time  now  by 
all  who  have  impartially  followed  the  movement  of  thought 
during  the  last  few  lustrums. 

*'  I  not  only  do  not  make  common  cause  with  the  Daven- 
port brothers,  but  I  ought  furthermore  to  add  that  I  con- 
sider them  as  placed  in  a  very  compromising  situation.  In 
laying  to  the  account  of  the  supernatural  matters  in  occult 
natural  philosophy  which  have  a  tolerable  resemblance  to 
feats  of  prestidigitation,  they  appear  to  a  curious  public 
to  ad<l  imposture  to  insolence.  In  setting  a  financial  value 
upon  their  talents,  tliey  seem  to  the  moralist,  who  is  investi- 
gating still  unexplained  phenomena,  to  place  themselves  on 
the  level  of  mountebanks.  Whatever  way  you  look  at  them, 
thoy  are  to  blame.  Accordingly,  I  condemn  at  once 
botJi  their  grave  error  in  assuming  to  be  superior  to  the 
forces  of  which  they  are  only  the  instruments  and  the  venal 
profit  thoy  draw  from  powers  of  which  they  are  not  master 
and  which  it  is  no  merit  of  theirs  to  possess.  In  my  opin- 
ion, it  is  a  piece  of  exaggeration  to  draw  conclusions  from 

•  RoHio  is  a  chnrnftor  in  Plant  us  and  ^folii^re.  TTermes  takes  Sosie's 
form.  and.  wlion  tho  hitter  s(h\s  his  double,  he  almost  doubts  his  own 
idintity.  So  the  word  eiune  to  mean  a  counterpart,  a  double,  one's 
alttr  t(jo. — Trans. 


li^TIlODUCTIO:^'  xvii 

these  unhappy  semblances  of  truth;  and  it  is  to  abdicate 
one's  right  of  private  judgment  to  make  one's  self  but  the 
echo  of  the  vulgar  herd  v^ho  hiss  and  shout  themselves  hoarse 
before  the  curtain  rises.  jSTo,  I  am  not  the  advocate  of  the 
two  brothers,  nor  of  their  personal  claims.  F^r  me,  indi- 
vidual men  do  not  exist.  That  which  I  defend  is  the  su- 
periority of  nature  to  us:  that  which  I  fight  against  is  the 
conceited  silliness  of  certain  persons. 

"  You  satirical  gentlemen  will  have  the  frankness,  I  hope, 
to  confess  with  me  that  the  different  reasons  pleaded  by  you 
in  explanation  of  these  problems  are  not  so  solid  as  they 
appear  to  be.  Since  you  have  discovered  nothing,  let  us  ad- 
mit, between  ourselves,  that  your  explanations  explain  noth- 
ing. 

"  I  do  not  doubt  that,  at  the  point  in  the  discussion  which 
we  have  actually  reached,  you  would  like  to  change  roles 
with  me,  and,  stopping  me  here,  constitute  yourselves  in  turn 
my  questioners. 

"  But  I  hasten  to  anticipate  your  proposal.  As  for  me, 
gentlemen,  I  am  not  sufiiciently  well  informed  to  explain 
these  mysteries.  I  pass  my  life  in  a  retired  garden  belong- 
ing to  one  of  the  nine  Muses,  and  my  attachment  to  this  fair 
creature  is  such  that  I  have  scarcely  ever  quitted  the  ap- 
proaches to  her  temple.  It  is  only  at  inteiwals,  in  moments 
of  relaxation  or  curiosity,  that  I  have  allowed  my  eyes  to 
wander,  from  time  to  time,  over  the  landscapes  which  sur- 
round it.  Therefore  ask  me  nothing.  I  am  making  a  sin- 
cere confession.  I  know  nothing  of  the  cause  of  these 
phenomena. 

"  You  see  how  modest  I  am.  All  I  wanted  in  undertak- 
ing this  examination  was  to  have  the  opportunity  of  saying 
this: 

"  You  know  nothing  about  it. 

"  Il^either  do  I, 


xviii  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

"  If  you  acknowledge  this,  we  can  shake  hands.  And,  if 
you  are  tractable,  I  will  tell  you  a  little  secret. 

"  In  the  mouth  of  June,  1776  (few  among  us  remember 
it),  a  young  man  twenty- live  years  old,  named  Jouffroy,  was 
making  a  trial  trip  on  the  river  Doubs  of  a  new  steamboat 
forty  feet  in  length  and  six  feet  in  breadth.  For  two  years 
he  had  k'on  calling  the  attention  of  scientific  authorities  to 
his  invention;  for  two  years  he  had  been  stoutly  asserting 
that  there  is  a  powerful  latent  energy  in  steam, —  at  that 
time  a  neglected  asset  All  ears  were  deaf  to  his  words. 
His  only  reward  was  to  be  completely  isolated  and  neglected. 
When  he  passed  through  the  streets  of  Baume-les-Dames, 
his  appearance  was  the  signal  for  jests  innumerable.  He 
was  dubbed  *  Jouffroy,  the  Steam  Man'  {'  Jouffroy-la- 
Pompe  ').  Ten  years  later,  having  built  a  pyroscaphe  [lit- 
erally, tireboat]  which  had  ascended  the  Saone  from  Lyons 
to  the  island  of  Burbe,  he  presented  a  petition  to  Calonne, 
the  comptroller-general  of  finance,  and  to  the  Academy  of 
Sciences.     They  would  not  look  at  his  invention ! 

"  On  August  9,  1803,  Fulton  went  up  the  Seine  in  a  new 
steamboat  at  the  rate  of  about  four  miles  an  hour.  The 
nicnilx-Ts  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  as  well  as  government 
officials  were  present  on  the  occasion.  The  next  day  they 
had  forgotten  all  about  it,  and  Fulton  went  to  make  the 
fortunes  of  Americans. 

**  in  171H  an  Italian  at  Bologna,  named  Galvani,  having 
hung  on  the  iron  railing  outside  his  window  some  skinned 
frogs  which  had  been  used  in  making  a  bouillon  for  his  wife, 
noted  that  they  moved  automatically,  although  they  bad 
been  killed  since  the  evening  before.  The  thing  was  in- 
credible, so  everybody  to  whom  he  told  it  opposed  his  state- 
ment. Men  of  sense  would  have  thought  it  beneath  their 
dignity  to  take  the  trouble  to  verify  the  story,  so  convinced 
were  they  of  its  impossibility.     But  Galvani  had  noted  that 


i:n'troductio:^  xix 

the  maximum  of  effect  was  attained  when  he  joined  the 
lumbar  nerves  and  the  ends  of  the  feet  of  a  frog  by  a  metallic 
arc  of  tin  and  copper.  The  frog's  muscles  then  jerked  con- 
vulsively. He  believed  it  was  due  to  a  nervous  fluid,  and 
so  lost  the  fruit  of  his  investigations.  It  was  reserved  for 
Yolta  to  discover  electricity. 

"  And  to-day  the  globe  is  threaded  with  a  network  of  trains 
drawn  by  flame-breathing  dragons.  Distances  have  disap- 
peared, annihilated  by  improvements  in  the  locomotive.  The 
genius  of  man  has  contracted  the  dimensions  of  the  earth; 
the  longest  voyages  are  but  excursions  over  definite  lines 
(the  curved  paths  of  the  '  ocean  lanes ')  ;  the  most  gigantic 
tasks  are  accomplished  by  the  tireless  and  powerful  hand 
of  this  unknown  force.  A  telegraphic  despatch  flies  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  from  one  continent  to  another;  a  man 
can  talk  with  a  citizen  of  London  or  St.  Petersburg  without 
getting  out  of  his  arm-chair.  And  these  wonders  attract 
no  special  notice.  We  little  think  through  what  struggles, 
bitter  disappointments  and  persecutions  they  came  into  be- 
ing! We  forget  that  the  impossible  of  yesterday  is  the 
accomplished  fact  of  to-day.  So  it  comes  to  pass  that  we 
still  find  men  who  come  to  us  saying :  ^  Halt  there,  you 
little  fellows!  We  don't  understand  you,  therefore  you 
don't  know  what  you're  talking  about.' 

"  Very  well,  gentlemen.  However  narrow  may  be  your 
opinions,  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  your  myopia 
is  to  spread  over  the  world.  You  are  hereby  informed  that, 
in  spite  of  you  and  in  spite  of  your  obscurantism  and  ob- 
struction tactics,  the  car  of  human  progress  will  roll  on  and 
continue  its  triumphal  march  and  conquest  of  new  forces 
and  powers.  As  in  the  case  of  Galvani's  frog,  the  laughable 
occurrences  that  you  refuse  to  believe  reveal  the  existence 
of  new  unknown  forces.  There  is  no  effect  without  a  cause. 
Man  is  the  least  known  of  all  beings.     We  have  learned 


XX  '  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

how  to  measure  the  sun,  cross  the  deeps  of  space,  analyze  the 
light  of  the  stars,  and  yet  have  not  dropped  a  plummet  into 
our  own  souls.  Man  is  dual, —  homo  duplex;  and  this 
double  nature  remains  a  mystery  to  him.  AYe  think:  what 
is  thought?  No  one  can  say.  We  walk:  what  is  that  or- 
ganic act ?  Iso  one  knows.  My  will  is  an  immaterial  force ; 
all  the  faculties  of  my  soul  are  immaterial.  iS'evertheless, 
if  I  will  to  move  my  arm,  my  will  moves  matter.  How 
does  it  act  ?  What  is  the  mediator  between  mind  and  mus- 
cle ?  As  yet  no  one  can  say.  Tell  me  how  the  optic  nerve 
transmits  to  the  thinking  brain  the  perception  of  outward 
objects.  Tell  me  how  thought  is  born,  where  it  resides,  what 
is  the  nature  of  cerebral  action.  Tell  me  —  but  no,  gentle- 
men: I  could  question  you  for  ten  years  on  a  stretch,  and 
the  most  eminent  of  you  could  not  answer  the  least  of  my 
interrogatories. 

"  Wo  have  here,  as  in  the  preceding  cases,  the  unknown 
clement  in  a  problem.  I  am  far  from  claiming  that  the 
force  that  comes  into  play  in  these  phenomena  can  one  day 
bo  financially  ex})loited,  as  in  the  case  of  electricity  and 
Ptram.  Such  an  idea  has  not  the  slightest  interest  for  me. 
But,  though  difToring  essentially  from  these  forces,  the  mys- 
terious  psychic  force  none  the  less  exists.  I 

"  In  the  course  of  the  long  and  laborious  studies  to  which 
I  have  consecrated  many  a  night,  as  a  relief  or  by-play  in 
more  important  work,  I  have  always  observed  in  these  phe- 
nomena tho  action  of  a  force  the  properties  of  which  are  to 
us  unknown.  Sometimes  it  has  seemed  to  me  analogous  to 
that  which  puts  to  sleep  the  magnetized  subject  imder  the 
will  of  the  hypnotizer  (a  reality  this,  also  slighted  even  by 
men  of  science).  Again,  in  other  circumstances,  it  has 
poomrd  to  mo  analogous  to  the  curious  freaks  of  the  light- 
ning.    Still,  1  believe  I  can  affirm  it  to  be  a  force  distinct 


INTEODUCTIOISr  >  xxi 

from  all  that  we  know,  and  which  more  than  any  other  re- 
sembles intelligence. 

''A  certain  savant  with  whom  I  am  acquainted  M. 
Fremy,  of  the  Institute,  has  recently  presented  to  the  Acad- 
emy of  Science,  apropos  of  spontaneous  generation,  sub- 
stances which  he  has  called  semi-organic,  I  believe  I  am 
not  perpetrating  a  neologism  bolder  than  this  when  I  say 
that  the  force  of  which  I  am  speaking  has  seemed  to  me 
to  belong  to  the  semi-intellectual  plane. 

"  Some  years  ago  I  gave  these  forces  the  name  psychic. 
That  name  can  be  justified. 

"  But  words  are  nothing.  They  oft^n  resemble  cuirasses, 
hiding  the  real  impression  that  ideas  should  produce  in 
us.  That  is  the  reason  why  it  is  perhaps  better  not  to  name 
a  thing  that  we  are  not  yet  able  to  define.  If  we  did,  we 
should  find  ourselves  so  shackled  afterwards  as  not  to  have 
perfect  freedom  in  our  conclusions.  It  has  often  been  seen 
in  history  that  a  premature  hypothesis  has  arrested  the  prog- 
ress of  science,  says  Grove :  '  When  natural  phenomena 
are  observed  for  the  first  time,  a  tendency  immediately  arises 
to  relate  them  to  something  already  known.  The  new  phe- 
nomenon may  be  quite  remote  from  the  ideas  with  which 
one  would  compare  it.  It  may  belong  to  a  different  order 
of  analogies.  But  this  distinction  cannot  be  perceived,  since 
the  necessary  data  or  co-ordinates  are  lacking.'  Now  the 
theory  originally  announced  is  soon  accepted  by  the  public; 
and  when  it  happens  that  subsequent  facts,  different  from 
the  preceding,  fail  to  fit  the  mould,  it  is  difficult  to  enlarge 
this  without  breaking  it,  and  people  often  prefer  to  abandon 
a  theory  now  proved  erroneous,  and  silently  ignore  the  in- 
tractable facts.  As  to  the  special  phenomena  in  question  in 
this  little  volume,  I  find  them  implicitly  embodied  in  three 
words  uttered  nearly  twenty  centuries  ago, —  mens  agitat 
MOLEM    (mind    acting    on    matter   gives    it   life    and   mo- 


xxu  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

tion)  ;  and  I  leave  the  phenomena  embedded  in  these  words, 
like  fire  in  the  flint.  I  will  not  strike  with  the  steel,  for  the 
spark  is  still  dangerous.  '  Periculosum  est  credere  et  non 
credere'  ('  It  is  dangerous  to  believe  and  not  to  believe'), 
says  the  ancient  fabulist  Pha^drus.  To  deny  facts  a  priori 
is  mere  conceit  and  idiocy.  To  accept  them  without  investi- 
i  gation  is  weakness  and  folly.  Why  seek  to  press  on  so 
eagerly  and  prematurely  into  regions  to  which  our  poor 
powers  cannot  yet  attain?  The  way  is  full  of  snares  and 
bottomless  pits.  The  phenomena  we  are  treating  in  these 
pages  do  not  perhaps  throw  new  light  upon  the  solution  of 
the  great  problem  of  immortality,  but  they  invite  us  to  re- 
monibor  that  there  are  in  man  elements  to  study,  to  deter- 
mine, to  analyze, —  elements  still  unexplained,  and  which 
belong  to  the  psychic  realm. 

"  There  has  been  much  talk  about  Spiritualism  in  connec- 
tion with  these  phenomena.  Some  of  its  defenders  have 
thought  to  strengthen  it  by  supporting  it  on  so  weak  a  basis 
as  that.  The  scoffers  have  thought  they  could  positively 
ruin  the  creed  of  the  psychics,  and,  hurling  it  from  its  base, 
bury  it  imder  a  fallen  wardrobe  {Vehoulement  d'une 
annoire)*  Kow  the  first-named  have  rather  compromised 
than  assisted  the  cause:  the  others  have  not  overturned  it 
after  all.  Even  if  it  should  be  proved  that  Spiritualism 
consists  only  of  tricks  of  legerdemain,  the  belief  in  the  ex- 
istence of  souls  separate  from  the  body  would  not  be  affected 
in  tlie  slightest  degree.  Besides,  the  deceptions  of  mediums 
do  not  prove  that  they  are  always  tricky.  They  only  put 
us  on  our  guard,  and  induce  us  to  keep  a  stern  watch  upon 
thorn. 

"  As  to  the  psychological  question  of  the  soul  and  the  an- 

•  Thi«  HOfiiiH  to  1m'  a  rrf»Tonce  to  the  warclrohe  used  by  the  early 
SpiritunliMta  as  a  cabinet  in  their  demonstrations  in  public  halls. — Trans, 


INTRODUCTION  ^^iii 

alysis  of  spiritual  forces,  we  are  just  where  chemistry  was  at 
the  time  of  Albert  the  Great:  we  don't  know. 

"  Can  we  not  then  keep  the  golden  mean  between  negation, 
which  denies  all,  and  credulity,  which  accepts  all?  Is  it 
rational  to  deny  everything  that  we  cannot  understand,  or, 
on  the  contrary,  to  believe  all  the  follies  that  morbid  imagi- 
nations give  birth  to^  one  after  another?  Can  we  not  pos- 
sess at  once  the  humility  which  becomes  the  weak  and  the 
dignity  which  becomes  the  strong  ? 

"  I  end  this  plea,  as  I  began  it,  by  declaring  that  it  is  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  brothers  Davenport,  nor  of  any  sect,  nor 
of  any  group,  nor,  in  short,  of  any  person  whatever,  that 
I  have  entered  the  lists  of  controversy,  but  solely  for  the 
sake  of  facts  the  reality  of  which  I  ascertained  several  years 
ago,  without  having  discovered  their  cause.  However,  I 
have  no  reason  to  fear  that  those  who  do  not  know  me  will 
take  a  fancy  to  misrepresent  my  thought;  and  I  think  that 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  me  know  that  I  am  not  accus- 
tomed to  swing  a  censer  in  any  one's  honor.  I  repeat  for 
the  last  time:  I  am  not  concerned  with  individuals.  My 
mind  seeks  the  truth,  and  recognizes  it  wherever  it  finds 
it.     '  Gallus  escam  qucerens  margaritam  reperit/'  * 

A  certain  number  of  my  readers  have  been  for  some  time 
kindly  expressing  a  wish  for  a  new  edition  of  this  early 
book.  But  strictly  speaking  I  could  not  do  this  without 
considerably  enlarging  my  original  plan  and  composing  an 
entirely  new  work.  The  daily  routine  of  my  astronomical 
labors  has  constantly  hindered  me  from  devoting  myself  to 
that  task.  The  starry  heaven  is  a  vast  and  absorbing  field  of 
work,  and  it  is  difiicult  to  turn  aside  (even  for  a  relaxation  in 
itself  scientific)  from  the  exacting  claims  of  a  science  which 
goes  on  developing  unceasingly  at  a  most  prodigious  rate. 

Still,  the  present  work  may  be  considered  as,  in  a  sense, 

*  The  cock  scratching  for  grain  finds  a  pearl. 


xxiv  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

an  enlarged  edition  of  the  earlier  one.  The  foregoing  cita- 
tion of  a  little  book  written  for  the  purpose  of  proving  the 
existence  of  unknown  forces  in  nature  has  seemed  to  me 
necessary  here;  useful  in  this  new  volume,  brought  out 
for  the  same  purpose  after  more  than  forty  years  of  study, 
since  it  may  serve  to  show  the  continuity  and  consistent 
development  of  my  thought  on  the  subject. 


« 


MYSTERIOUS   PSYCHIC  FORCES 


li 


MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

CHAPTER  I 

ON"  CEETAIIT  UNKNOWN  NATURAL  FORCES 

I  p-arppsa-to-^liow  in  this  book  what  truth  there  is  in  the 
phenomena  of  table-turnings,  table-movings,  and  table-rap- 
pings, in  the  communications  received  therefrom,  in  levita- 
tions  that  contradict  the  laws  of  gravity,  in  the  moving  of 
objects  without  contact,  in  unexplained  noises,  in  the  stories 
told  of  haunted  houses, —  all  to  be  considered  from  the  phys- 
ical and  mechanical  point  of  view.  Under  all  the  just  men- 
tioned heads  we  can  group  material  facts  produced  by  causes 
still  unkno^\^l  to  science,  and  it  is  with  these  physical  phe- 
nomena that  we  shall  specially  occupy  ourselves  here ;  for  the 
first  point  is  to  definitely  prove,  by  sufiicient  observations, 
their  real  existence.  Hypotheses,  theories,  doctrines,  will 
come  later. 

In  the  country  of  Rabelais,  of  Montaigne,  of  Voltaire,  we 
are  inclined  to  smile  at  everything  that  relates  to  the  mar- 
'-vellous,  to  tales  of  enchantment,  the  extravagances  of  occult- 
ism, the  mysteries  of  magic.  This  arises  from  a  reasonable 
prudence.  But  it  does  not  go  far  enough.  To  deny  and 
prejudge  a  phenomenon  has  never  proved  anything.     The  ^_^^^  V 

truth  of  almost  every  fact  which  constitutes  the  sum  of  the  yN**-^-^*^ 
positive  sciences  of  our  day  has  been   denied.     What  we    ^ 
ought  to  do  is  to  admit  no  unverified  statement,  to  apply 
to  every  subject  of  study,  no  matter  what,  the  experimental 
method,  without  any  preconceived  idea  whatever,  either  for 
or  against. 

1 


2  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

We  are  dealing  here  with  a  great  problem,  which  touches 
on  that  of  the  survival  of  human  consciousness.  We  may 
study  it,  in  spite  of  smiles. 

When  we  consecrate  our  lives  to  an  idea,  useful,  noble, 
exalted,  we  should  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  sacrifice 
personalities;  above  all,  our  own  self,  our  interest,  our  self- 
esteem,  our  natural  vanity.  This  sacrifice  is  a  criterion  by 
which  I  have  estimated  a  good  many  characters.  How  many 
men,  how  many  women,  put  their  miserable  little  person- 
ality above  everything  else! 

If  the  forces  of  which  we  are  to  treat  are  real,  they  can- 
not  but  be  natural  forces.  We  ought  to  admit,  as  an  abso- 
lute principle,  that  everything  is  in  nature,  even  God  him- 
self, as  I  have  sho\\'n  in  another  work.  Before  any  attempt 
at  theory,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  scientifically  establish 
the  real  existence  of  these  forces. 

Mediumistic  experiences  might  form  (and  doubtless  soon 
will  form)  a  chapter  in  physics.  Only  it  is  a  kind  of  tran- 
scendental physics  which  touches  on  life  and  thought,  and 
the  forces  in  play  are  pre-eminently  living  forces,  psychic 
forces. 

1  shall  relate  in  the  following  chapter  the  experiments  I 
made  between  the  years  18G1  and  1865,  previous  to  the 
pcMining  of  the  protest,  reprinted  in  the  long  citation  above 
given  (in  the  Introduction).  But,  since  in  certain  respects 
they  are  summed  up  in  those  I  have  just  had,  in  1906,  I 
will  lK>gin  by  describing  the  latter  in  this  first  chapter. 

In  fact,  I  have  recently  renewed  these  investigations  with 
a  celebrated  medium, —  Mme.  Eusapia  Paladino,  of  Xaples, 
who  has  been  several  tiiiios  in  Paris;  namely,  in  1898,  1905, 
and,  very  recently,  in  1006.  The  things  I  am  going  to 
speak  of  haj^pcnod  in  the  salon  of  my  home  in  Paris, —  the 
last  omes  in  full  light  without  any  preparation,  very  simply, 
as  if  durinc:  nllcr-cttn^ier  talks] 


u:n^kxown'  natural  forces  3 

Let  me  add  that  this  medium  came  to  Paris  during  the 
first  months  of  the  year,  1906,  at  the  invitation  of  the 
Psychological  Institute,  several  members  of  which  have  been 
recently  engaged  in  researches  begun  long  ago.  Among 
these  savants  I  will  mention  the  name  of  the  lamented  Pierre 
Qurie,  the  eminent  chemist,  with  whom  I  had  a  conversa- 
tion a  few  days  before  his  unfortunate  and  terrible  death. 
My  mediumistic  experiences  with  Mme.  Paladino  formed 
for  him  a  new  chapter  in  the  great  book  of  nature,  and  he 
also  was  convinced  that  there  exist  hidden  forces  to  the 
investigation  of  which  it  is  not  unscientific  to  consecrate 
one's  self.  His  subtle  and  penetrating  genius  would  per- 
haps have  quickly  determined  the  character  of  these  forces. 

Those  who  have  given  some  little  attention  to  these  psycho- 
logical studies  are  acquainted  with  the  powers  of  Mme.  Pala- 
dino. The  published  works  of  Count  de  Rochas,  of  Professor 
Richet,  of  Dr.  Dariex,  of  M.  G.  de  Pontenay,  and  nota- 
bly the  Annates  des  sciences  psycliiques,  have  pointed  them 
out  and  described  them  in  such  detail  that  it  would  be  su- 
perfluous to  recur  to  them  at  this  point.  Farther  on  we 
shall  find  a  place  for  discussing  them. 

Running  underneath  all  the  observations  of  the  above-men- 
tioned writers,  one  dominant  idea  can  be  read  as  if  in  palimp- 
sest; namely,  the  imperious  necessity  the  experimenters  are 
constantly  under  of  suspecting  tricks  in  this  medium  (Mme. 
Paladino).  But  all  mediums,  men  and  women,  have  to  be 
watched.  During  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years  I  be- 
lieve that  I  have  received  at  my  home  nearly  all  of  them, 
men  and  women  of  divers  nationalities  and  from  every  quar- 
ter of  the  globe.  Q^e  may  lay;  it  dpwn^as  a  principle  that 
all  professional  mediums  cheat.  But  they  do  not  always 
cheat ;  and  they  possess  real,  undeniable  psychic  powers. 

Their  case  is  nearly  that  of  the  hysterical  folk  under  ob- 
servation at  the  Salpetriere  or  elsewhere.     I  have  seen  some 


4  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

of  them  outwit  with  their  profound  craft  not  only  Dr. 
Charcot,  but  especially  Dr.  Luys,  and  all  the  physicians  who 
were  making  a  study  of  their  case.  But,  because  hysteriacs 
deceive  and  simulate,  it  would  be  a  gross  error  to  conclude 
that  hysteria  does  not  exist.  And,  because  mediums  fre- 
quently descend  to  the  most  brazen-faced  imposture,  it  would 
not  be  less  absurd  to  conclude  that  mediumship  has  no  ex- 
istence. Disreputable  somnambulists  do  not  forbid  the  ex- 
istence of  magnetism,  hypnotism,  and  genuine  somnambu- 
lism. 

This  necessity  of  being  constantly  on  our  guard  has  dis- 
couraged more  than  one  investigator,  as  the  illustrious  as- 
tronomer Schiaparelli,  director  of  the  Observatory  of  Milan, 
specially  wrote  me,  in  a  letter  which  will  appear  farther  on. 

Still,  we  have  got  to  endure  this  evil. 

The  words  "  fraud  "  (supercherie)  and  "  trickery  '^  (tri- 
chcrie)  have  in  this  connection  a  sense  a  little  different  from 
their  ordinary  meaning.  Sometimes  the  mediums  deceive  pur- 
posely, knowing  well  what  they  are  doing,  and  enjoying  the 
fun.  But  oftener  they  unconsciously  deceive,  impelled  by  the 
desire  to  produce  the  phenomena  that  people  are  expecting. 

They  liel])  on  the  success  of  the  experiment  when  that  suc- 
cess is  slow  in  its  appearance.  Mediums  who  deal  with  objec- 
tive phenomena  are  gifted  with  the  power  of  causing  objects 
at  a  distance  to  move,  of  lifting  tables,  etc.  But  they  usu- 
ally apj)ear  to  apply  this  power  at  the  ends  of  their  fingers, 
and  the  objects  to  be  moved  have  to  be  within  reach  of  their 
hands  or  feet,  a  very  regrettable  thing,  and  one  which 
furnishes  fine  sport  for  the  prejudiced  sceptics.  Sometimes 
the  mediums  act  like  the  billiard  player,  who  continues  for 
an  instant  the  gesture  of  hand  and  arm,  holding  his  cue 
pointed  at  the  rolling  ivory  ball,  and  leaning  forward  as  if 
by  his  will  he  could  push  it  to  a  carom.  He  knows  very  well 
that  he  has  no  further  power  over  the  fate  of  the  ball,  which 


UKKNOWK  NATURAL  FOECES  5 

his  initial  stroke  aloue  impels ;  but  he  guides  its  course  by  his 
thought  and  his  gesture. 

It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  caution  the  reader  that  the 
word  "medium"  is  employed  in  these  pages  without  any 
preconceived  idea,  and  not  in  the  etymological  sense  in  which 
it  took  its  rise  at  the  time  of  the  first  Spiritualistic  theories, 
which  affirmed  that  the  man  or  the  woman  endowed  with 
psychic  powers  is  an  mtermediary  between  spirits  and  those 
who  are  experimenting.  The  person  who  has  the  power> 
of  causing  objects  to  move  contrary  to  the  laws  of  gravity 
(even  sometimes  without  touching  them),  of  causing  soundsj 
to  be  heard  at  a  distance  and  without  any  exei'tion  of  mus- 
cular force,  and  of  bringing  before  the  eyes  various  appari- 
tions, has  not  necessarily,  on  that  account,  any  bond  of  union  \ 
with  disembodied  minds  or  souls.  We  shall  keep  this  word 
"  medium,"  however,  now  so  long  in  use.  We  are  concerned 
here  only  with  facts.  I  hope  to  convince  the  reader  that 
these  things  really  exist,  and  are  neither  illusions  nor  farces, 
nor  feats  of  prestidigitation.  My  object  is  to  prove  their 
reality  with  absolute  certainty,  to  do  for  them  what  (in 
my  volume  The  Unknown  and  the  Psychic  Problems)  I 
have  done  for  telepathy,  the  apparitions  of  the  dying,  pre- 
monitory dreams,  and  clairvoyance. 

I  shall  begin,  I  repeat,  with  experiments  which  I  have 
recently  renewed;  namely,  during  four  seances  on  March 
29,  April  5,  May  30,  and  June  7,  of  1906. 

1.  Take  the  case  of  the  levitation  of  a  roimd  table.  I 
have  so  often  seen  a  rather  heavy  table  lifted  to  a  height 
of  eight,  twelve,  sixteen  inches  from  the  floor,  and  I  have 
taken  such  undeniably  authentic  photographs  of  these;  I 
have  so  often  proved  to  myself  that  the  suspension  of  this 
article  of  furniture  by  the  imposition  upon  it  of  the  hands 
of  four  or  five  persons  produces  the  effect  of  a  floating 
in  a  tub  full  of  water  or  other  elastic  fluid,  that,  for  me, 


6  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  levitation  of  objects  is  no  more  doubtful  than  that  of  a 
pair  of  scissors  lifted  by  the  aid  of  a  magnet.  But  one 
evening  when  I  was  almost  alone  with  Eusapia,  March  29, 
1906  (there  were  four  of  us  altogether),  being  desirous  of 
examining  at  leisure  how  the  thing  was  done,  I  asked  her 
to  place  her  hands  with  mine  upon  the  table,  the  other  per- 
sons remaining  at  a  distance.  The  table  very  soon  rose 
to  a  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  inches  while  we  were  both 
standing.  At  the  moment  of  the  production  of  the  phe- 
nomenon the  medium  placed  one  of  her  hands  on  one  of 
mine,  which  she  pressed  energetically,  our  two  other  hands 
resting  side  by  side.  Moreover,  on  her  part,  as  on  mine, 
there  was  an  act  of  will  expressed  in  words  of  command  ad- 
dressed to  "  the  spirit " :  "  Come  now !  Lift  the  table ! 
Take  courage  I     Come !     Try  now ! ''  etc. 

We  ascertained  at  once  that  there  were  two  elements  or 
constituents  present.  On  the  one  hand,/the  experimenters 
address  an  invisible  entity.  /?Pn  the  other  hand,  the  medium 
experiences  a  nervous  and  muscular  fatiaiie,  and  her  weisrht 
increases  m  proportion  to  that  of  the  object  lifted  (but  not 
in  exact  proportion). 

We  are  obliged  to  act  as  if  there  really  were  a  being  pres- 

'  f  y  y     //    5^^  ^^^'^  ^^  listening.     This  being  appears  to  come  into  ex- 

7  7A  r*        i3^f'»<^<'>  «»^1  then  become  non-existent  as  soon  as  the  experi- 

^  '    niont  is  oiulod.     It  seems  to  be  created  by  the  medium.     Is 

it  an  auto-suggestion  of  hers  or  of  the  dynamic  ensemble 

of  the  experimenters  that  creates  a  special  force?     Is  it  a 

doubling  of  her  personality?     Is  it  the  condensation  of  a 

psychic  milieu  in  the  midst  of  which  we  live?     If  we  seek 

to  obtain  i)roof8  of  actual  and  permanent  individuality,  and 

above  all  of  the  identity  of  a  particular  soul  called  up  in  our 

memory,  wo  never  obtain  any  satisfaction.     There  lies  the 

mystery. 


U]^k:n^ow]^  :n'atueal  forces  y 

Conclusion :  we  have  here  an  unknown  force  of  the  psychic 
class,  a  living  force,  the  life  of  a  moment  only. 

May  it  not  be  possible  that,  in  exerting  ourselves,  we  give 
rise  to  a  detachment  of  forces  which  acts  exteriorly  to  our 
body?  But  this  is  not  the  place,  in  these  first  pages,  to 
make  hypotheses. 

The  experiment  of  which  I  have  just  spoken  was  repeated 
three  times  running,  in  the  full  light  of  a  gas  chandelier, 
and  under  the  same  conditions  of  complete  proof  in  each 
case.  A  round  table  w^eighing  about  fourteen  pounds  is 
lifted  by  this  unknowTi  force.  A  table  of  twenty-five  or 
fifty  pounds  or  more  requires  a  greater  number  of  persons. 
But  they  will  get  no  result  if  one  at  least  among  them  is 
not  gifted  with  the  mediumistic  power. 

And  let  me  add,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  is  in  such  ^ 
an  experiment  so  great  an  expenditure  of  nervous  and  mus- 
cular energy  that  such  an  extraordinary  medium  as  Eusapia, 
for  instance,  can  obtain  scarcely  any  results  six  hours,  twelve 
hours,  even  twenty-four  hours,  after  a  seance  in  which  she 
has  so  lavishly  expended  her  psychic  energy. 

I  will  add  that  quite  often  the  table  continues  to  rise  even 
after  the  experimenters  have  ceased  to  touch  it.  This  is 
movement  without  contact. 

This  phenomenon  of  levitation  is,  to  me,  absolutely  proved, 
although  we  cannot  explain  it.  It  is  like  what  would  hap- 
pen if  one  had  his  hands  gloved  with  loadstone,  and,  placing 
them  on  a  table  of  iron,  should  lift  it  from  the  ground.  But 
the  action  is  not  so  simple  as  that :  it  is  a  case  of  psychic  /\  y  /  /^ 
activity  exterior  to  ourselves,  momentarily  in  operation.*  '^     ^*^: 

*  In  order  that  I  may  at  once  place  before  the  eyes  of  my  readers 
documentary  evidence  of  these  experiments,  I  reproduce  here  (PI.  I) 
a  photograph  taken  at  my  apartments  on  the  12th  of  November  in 
1898.  Any  one  can  perceive  by  the  horizontality  of  the  arms,  as  well 
as  by  the  distance  between  the  feet  of  the  table  and  the  floor,  that  the 
elevation  is  from  six  to  eight  inches.  The  precise  distance  is  marked 
on  the  figure  itself, —  a  measurement  taken  the  next  day  by  propping 
up  the  table,  with  the  aid  of  books,  in  the  same  position  as  it  was. 


V 


8      MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Xow  Low  are  these  levitations  and  movements  pro- 
duced ? 

IIow  is  it  that  a  stick  of  sealing-wax  or  a  lamp-chimney,  i 
when  rubbed,  attracts  bits  of  paper  or  elder  pith  ? 

IIow  is  it  that  a  particle  of  iron  gi'ips  so  firmly  to  the 
loadstone  when  brought  near  it  ? 

How  is  it  that  electricity  accumulates  in  the  vapor  of 
water,  in  the  molecules  of  a  cloud,  until  it  gives  rise  to  the 
thunder,  the  tliunderbolt,  the  lightning  flash,  and  all  their 
formidable  results  ? 

How  is  it  that  the  thunderbolt  strips  the  clothes  from  a 
man  or  a  woman  with  its  characteristic  nonchalance  ? 

And  (to  take  a  simple  instance),  without  departing  from 
our  common  and  normal  condition  of  life,  how  is  it  that  we 
raise  our  arm  ? 

2.  Take  now  a  specimen  of  another  group  of  cases.  The 
medium  places  one  of  her  hands  upon  that  of  some  per- 
son, and  with  the  other  beats  the  air,  with  one,  two, 
three,  or  four  strokes  or  raps.  The  raps  are  heard  in  the 
table,  and  you  feel  the  vibrations  at  the  same  time  that  you 
hear  them, —  sharp  blows  whicli  make  you  think  of  electric 
shocks.  It  is  superfluous  to  state  that  the  feet  of  the  me- 
dium do  not  touch  those  of  the  table,  but  are  kept  at  a  dis- 
tance from  them. 
,  The  medium  next  places  her  hands  Avith  ours  upon  the 

'^  table,  and  the  taps  heard  in  the  table  are  stronger  than  in 

w*^^     the  preceding  case. 

These  taps   audible   in   the  table,   this  "  typtology "  well 

Tho  niodiuni  has  hor  two  foot,  wliolly  undor  my  right  foot,  while  at 
tho  Hnnn'  time  hor  knoos  are  undor  my  ritjht  hand.  Her  hands  are 
upon  tho  ial)lo  ^jraspod  by  my  left  hand  and  by  that  of  the  other 
oritical  obnervor  or  "oontrol"  (controlcur) ,  who  has  just  placed  a 
ciishion  iK'foro  hor  to  ahioUl  her  very  sensitive  oyea  from  the  flash  of 
tho  nia^niosiuni  light,  and  thus  save  her  from  a  disagreeable  nervous 
attack. 

Thr.so  photographs,  taken  rapidly  by  magnesium  light,  are  not  per- 
fcot,  Itut  thoy  are  records. 


Plate  I.     Completk  Levitatiox  of  a  Table  in  Professor 

Flammariox's  Salox  through  Mediumship 

OF  Edsapia  Paladino. 


UJS^KI^OW^^  XATUKAL  FORCES  9 

known  to  Spiritualists,  have  been  frequently  attributed 
to  some  kind  of  trickery  or  another,  to  a  crackino- 
muscle  or  to  various  actions  of  the  medium.  After 
the  comparative  study  I  have  made  of  these  special 
occurrences  I  believe  I  am  right  in  affirming  that  this  fact 
also  is  not  less  certain  than  the  first.  Rappings,  as  is  well  j-Jq^ 
known,  are  obtained  in  all  kinds  of  rhythms,  and  responses  ^»' 

to   all  questions    are   obtained   through   simple  conventions, 
by  which  it  is  agreed,  for  instance,  that  three  taps  shall ^^^  ' 
mean  "yes"  and  two  mean  "no,"  and  that,  while  the  let-A^//   ^*v>/i 
ters  of  the  alphabet  are  being  read,  words  can  be  dictated  by     H^  '  ^  ^ 
taps  made  as  each  letter  is  named. 

3.  During  our  experiments,  while  we  four  persons  are 
seated  around  a  table  asking  for  a  communication  which 
does  not  arrive,  an  arm-chair,  placed  about  twenty-four 
inches  from  the  medium's  foot  (upon  which  I  have  placed 
my  foot  to  make  sure  that  she  cannot  use  hers), —  an  arm- 
chair, I  say,  begins  to  move,  and  comes  sliding  up  to  us. 
I  push  it  back;  it  returns.  It  is  a  stuffed  affair  (pouf), 
very  heavy,  but  easily  capable  of  gliding  over  the  floor. 
This  thing  happened  on  the  29th  of  last  March,  and  again 
on  April  5th. 

It  could  have  been  done  by  draAving  the  chair  with  a  string 
or  by  the  medium  putting  her  foot  sufficiently  far  out. 
But  it  happened  over  and  over  again  (five  or  six  times), 
I  ?automatically  moving,  and  that  so  violently  that  the  chair 
jumped  about  the  floor  in  a  topsy-turvy  fashion  and  ended 
by  falling  bottom  side  up  without  anybody  having  touched 
it. 

4. 'Here  is  a  fourth  case  re-observed  this  year,  after  hav- 
ing been  several  times  verified  by  me,  notably  in  1898. 

Curtains  near  the  medium,  but  which  it  is  impossible  for 
her  to  touch,  either  with  the  hand  or  the  foot,  swell  out  their 
whole  length,  as  if  inflated  by  a  gusty  wind.     I  have  several 


10  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

times  seen  them  envelop  the  heads  of  the  spectators  as  if  with 

cowls  of  Capuchin  monks. 

5.  Here  is  a  fifth  instance,  authenticated  by  me  several 
times,  and  always  with  the  same  care. 

While  I  am  holding  one  hand  of  Eusapia  in  mine,  and  one 
of  my  astronomical  friends,  tutor  at  the  Ecole  Polytechnique, 
is  holding  the  other,  we  are  touched,  first  one  and  then  the 
other,  upon  the  side  and  on  the  shoulders,  as  if  by  an  in- 
visible Iiand. 

The  medium  usually  tries  to  get  together  her  two  hands,! 
held  separately  by  each  of  us,  and  by  a  skilful  substitution  to] 
make  us  believe  we  hold  both  when  she  has  succeeded  in  dis-j 
engaging  one.  This  fraud  being  well  knowoi  by  us,  w^e| 
act  the  part  of  forewarned  spectators,  and  are  positive  that 
we  have  each  succeeded  in  holding  her  hands  apart.  The 
touchings  in  this  experiment  seem  to  proceed  from  an  in- 
visible entity  and  are  rather  disagreeable.  Those  which 
take  place  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  medium  could  be 
due  to  fraud ;  but  to  some  of  them  this  explanation  is  inap- 
plicable. 

This  is  the  place  to  remark  that,  unfortunately,  the  ex- 
truordinar}'  character  of  the  phenomena  is  in  direct  ratio  with 
tli(^  absence  of  light,  and  we  are  continually  asked  by  the  me- 
dium to  turn  down  the  gas,  almost  to  the  vanishing  point: 
"  Mcno  luce!  incno  luce!  "  ("  Less  light,  less  light  ").  This, 
of  course,  is  advantageous  to  all  kinds  of  fraud.  But  it  is  a 
condition  no  more  obligatory  than  the  others.  There  is  in 
it  no  implication  of  a  throat. 

Wo  can  get  a  large  number  of  mcdiumistic  phenomena 
with  a  light  strong  enough  for  us  to  distinguish  things  with 
certainty.  Still,  it  is  a  fact  th^t  light  is  unfavorable  to  the 
I)rodu('tion  of  |)henoniena. 

This  is  annoying.  Yet  we  have  no  right  to  impose  the 
opposite  condition.     We  have  no  right  to  demand  of  nature 


UNKNOWN  NATURAL  FOECES  n 

conditions  which  happen  to  suit  us.  It  would  be  just  as  rea- 
sonable to  try  to  get  a  photographic  negative  without  a  dark 
room,  or  to  draw  electricity  from  a  rotating  machine  in  the 
midst  of  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  moisture.  Light  is 
a  natural  agent  capable  of  producing  certain  effects  and  of 
opposing  the  production  of  others. 

This  aphorism  calls  to  my  mind  an  anecdote  in  the  life 
of  Daguerre,  related  in  the  first  edition  of  this  book. 

One  evening  this  illustrious  natural  philosopher  meets  an 
elegant  and  fashionable  woman  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Opera  House,  of  which  he  was  at  that  time  the  decorator. 
Enthusiastic  over  his  progress  in  natural  philosophy,  he  hap- 
pens to  speak  of  his  photogenic  studies.  He  tells  her  of  a 
marvellous  discovery  by  which  the  features  of  the  face  can 
be  fixed  upon  a  plate  of  silver.  The  lady,  who  is  a  person 
of  plain  common  sense,  courteously  laughs  in  his  face.  The 
savant  goes  on  with  his  story,  without  being  disconcerted. 
He  even  adds  that  it  is  possible  for  the  phenomenon  to  take 
place  instantaneously  when  the  processes  become  perfected. 
But  he  has  his  pains  for  his  trouble.  His  charming  com- 
panion is  not  credulous  enough  to  accept  such  an  extrava- 
gance. Paint  without  colors  and  without  a  brush !  design 
without  pen  or  crayon!  as  if  a  portrait  could  get  painted 
all  by  itself,  etc.  But  the  inventor  is  not  discouraged,  and, 
to  convince  her,  offers  to  make  her  portrait  by  this  process. 
The  lady  is  unwilling  to  be  thought  a  dupe  and  refuses.  But 
the  skilful  artist  pleads  his  cause  so  well  that  he  overcomes 
her  objections.  The  blond  daughter  of  Eve  consents  to  pose 
before  the  object-glass.  But  she  makes  one  condition, — 
only  one. 

Her  beauty  is  at  its  best  in  the  evening,  and  she  feels  a 
little  faded  in  the  garish  light  of  day. 

"  If  you  could  take  me  in  the  evening  — " 
"  But,  madame,  it  is  impossible  — " 


12  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

"  Why  ?  You  say  that  your  invention  reproduces  the 
face,  feature  by  feature.  I  prefer  my  features  of  the  even- 
ing over  those  of  the  morning.'' 

"  Madame,  it  is  the  light  itself  which  pencils  the  image, 
and  without  it  I  can  do  nothing." 

''  We  will  light  a  chandelier,  a  lamp,  do  anything  to  please 
you." 

"  Xo,  madame,  the  light  of  day  is  imperative." 

"  Will  you  please  tell  me  why  ?  " 

"  Because  the  light  of  the  sun  exhibits  an  intense  activity, 
sufficient  to  decompose  the  iodide  of  silver.  So  far,  I  have 
not  been  able  to  take  a  photograph  except  in  full  sunlight." 

Both  remained  obstinate,  the  lady  maintaining  that  what 
could  be  done  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  could  also  easily 
bo  done  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The  inventor  affirmed 
the  contrary. 

So,  then,  all  you  have  to  do,  gentlemen,  is  to  forbid  the 
light  to  blacken  iodine,  or  order  it  to  blacken  lime,  and  con- 
dcnm  the  photographer  to  develop  his  negative  in  full  light. 
Ask  Electricity  why  it  will  pass  instantaneously  from  one 
end  to  the  other  of  an  iron  wire  a  thousand  miles  long  and 
why  it  refuses  to  traverse  a  thread  of  glass  half  an  inch 
long.  Beg  the  night-blooming  flowers  to  expand  in  the  day, 
or  those  that  only  bloom  in  the  light  not  to  close  at  dusk. 
Give  mo  the  explanation  of  the  respiration  of  plants,  diurnal 
and  noctunial,  and  of  the  production  of  chlorophyll  and  how 
plants  develop  a  green  color  in  the  light;  why  they  breathe 
in  oxygen  and  exhale  carbonic  acid  gas  during  the  night, 
and  reverse  the  process  during  the  day.  Change  the  equiva- 
lents of  simple  substances  in  chemistry,  and  order  combina- 
tions to  be  produced.  Forbid  azotic  acid  to  boil  at  the  freez- 
ing temperature,  and  command  water  to  boil  at  zero.  You 
have  only  to  ask  these  accommodations  and  nature  will  obey 
you,  gentlemen,  depend  upon  it. 


UNKNOWN  NATUEAL  FORCES  13 

A  good  many  phenomena  of  nature  only  occur  in  ob- 
scurity. The  germs  of  plants,  animals,  man,  in  forming  a 
new  being,  work  their  miracle  only  in  the  dark. 

Here,  in  a  flask,  is  a  mixture  of  hydrogen  and  chlorine  in 
equal  volumes.  If  you  wish  to  preserve  the  mixture,  you 
must  keep  the  flask  in  the  dark,  whether  you  want  to  or 
not.  Such  is  the  law.  As  long  as  it  remains  in  the  dark, 
it  will  retain  its  properties.  But  suppose  you  take  a  school- 
boy notion  to  expose  the  thing  to  the  action  of  light.  In- 
stantly a  violent  explosion  is  heard;  the  hydrogen  and  the 
chlorine  disappear,  and  you  find  in  the  flask  a  new  substance, 
—  chloridic  acid.  There  is  no  use  in  your  finding  fault : 
darkness  respects  the  two  substances,  while  light  explodes 
them. 

If  w^e  should  hear  a  malignant  sceptic  of  some  clique  or 
other  say,  "  I  will  only  believe  in  jack-o'-lanterns  when  I 
see  them  in  the  light  of  day,"  what  should  we  think  of  his 
sanity  ?  About  what  we  should  think  if  he  should  add  that 
the  stars  are  not  certainties,  since  they  are  only  seen  at  night. 

In  all  the  observations  and  experiments  of  physics  there 
are  conditions  to  be  observed.  In  those  of  which  we  are 
speaking  a  too  strong  light  seems  to  imperil  the  success  of 
the  experiment  But  it  goes  without  saying  that  precau- 
tions against  deception  ought  to  increase  in  direct  ratio  with 
the  decrease  of  visibility  and  other  means  of  verification. 

Let  us  return  to  our  experiments. 

6.  Taps  are  heard  in  the  table,  or  it  moves,  rises,  falls 
back,  raps  with  its  leg,  A  kind  of  interior  movement  is 
produced  in  the  wood,  violent  enough,  sometimes,  to  break 
it.  The  round  table  I  made  use  of  (with  others)  in  my 
home  was  dislocated  and  repaired  more  than  once,  and  it 
was  by  no  means  the  pressure  of  the  hands  upon  it  that  could 
have  caused  the  dislocations.     No,  there  is  something  more 


14  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

than  that  in  it:  there  is  in  tlie  actions  of  the  table  the  inter- 
vention of  mind,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

The  table  is  questioned,  by  means  of  the  conventional 
signs  described  a  few  pages  back,  and  it  responds.  Phrases 
are  rapped  out,  usually  banal  and  without  any  literary,  sci- 
entific, or  philosophical  value.  But,  at  any  rate,  words  are 
rapped  out,  phrases  are  dictated.  These  phrases  do  not  come 
of  their  own  accord,  nor  is  it  the  medium  who  taps  them  — 
consciously  —  either  with  her  foot  or  her  hand,  or  by  the  aid 
of  a  snapping  muscle,  for  we  obtain  them  in  seances  held 
without  professional  mediums  and  at  scientific  reunions 
where  the  existence  of  trickery  would  be  a  thing  of  the 
greatest  absurdity.  The  mind  of  the  medium  and  that  of 
the  experimenters  most  assuredly  have  something  to  do  with 
the  mystery.  The  replies  obtained  generally  tally  the  in- 
tellectual status  of  the  company,  as  if  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties of  the  persons  present  were  exterior  to  their  brains  and 
were  acting  in  the  table  wholly  unkno\\Ti  to  the  experimenters 
themselves.  IIow  can  this  thing  be  ?  How  can  we  compose 
and  dictate  phrases  without  knowing  it.  Sometimes  the 
ideas  broached  seem  to  come  from  a  personality  unknown 
to  the  company,  and  the  hypothesis  of  spirits  quite  naturally 
presents  itself.  A  word  is  begun ;  some  one  thinks  he  can 
divine  its  ending;  to  save  time,  he  writes  it  down;  the  table 
parries,  is  agitated,  impatient.  It  is  the  wrong  w^ord;  an- 
other was  being  dictated.  There  is  here,  then,  a  psychic 
element  which  we  are  obliged  to  recognize,  whatever  its  na- 
ture may  be  when  analyzed. 

The  success  of  experiments  does  not  always  depend  on  the 
will  of  the  medium.  Of  course  that  is  tlie  chief  element  in 
it;  but  certain  conditions  independent  of  her  are  necessary. 
The  psychical  atmosphere  created  by  the  persons  present  has 
an  influence  that  cannot  be  neglected.  So  the  state  of  health 
of  the  medium  is  not  without  its  influence.     If  he  is  fatigued, 


U^K]S;OWAT  :natURAL  EORCES  15 

although  he  may  have  the  best  will  in  the  world,  the  value 
of  the  results  will  be  affected.  I  had  a  new  proof  of  this 
thing,  so  often  observed,  at  mj  house,  with  Eusapia  Pala- 
dino,  on  Mav  30,  1906.  She  had  for  more  than  a  month 
been  suffering  from  a  rather  painful  affection  of  the  eyes; 
and  furthermore  her  legs  were  considerably  swollen.  We 
were  seven,  of  whom  two  lookers-on  were  sceptics.  The  re- 
sults were  almost  nil;  namely,  the  lifting,  during  scarcelv 
two  seconds  of  time,  of  a  round  table  weighing  about  four 
pounds;  the  tipping  up  of  one  side  of  a  four-legged  table; 
and  a  few  rappings.  Still,  the  medium  seemed  animated  by 
a  real  wish  to  obtain  some  result.  She  confessed  to  me,  how- 
ever, that  what  had  chiefly  paralyzed  her  faculties  was  the 
sceptical  and  sarcastic  spirit  of  one  of  the  two  incredulous 
persons.  I  knew  of  the  absolute  scepticism  of  this  man. 
It  had  not  been  manifested  in  any  way;  but  Eusapia  had 
at  once  divined  it. 

The  state  of  mind  of  the  by-standers,  sympathetic  or  anti- 
pathetic, has  an  influence  upon  the  production  of  the  phe- 
nomena.    This  is  an  incontestable  matter  of  observation.     I  .   1        37 
am  not  speaking  here  merely  of  a  tricky  medium  rendered  |     /         l 
powerless  to  act  by  a  too  close  critical  inspection,  but  also' 
of  a  hostile   force  which  may  more  or  less  neutralize  the 
sincerest  volition.     Is  it  not  the  same,  moreover,  in  assem- 
blies, large  or  small,  in  conferences,  in  salons,  etc.  ?     Do  we 
not  often  see  persons  of  baleful  and  antipathetic  spirit  de- 
feat  at   their   very   beginning   the    accomplishment    of   the 
noblest  purposes. 

Here  are  the  results  of  another  sitting  of  the  same  medium 
held  a  few  days  afterwards. 

On  the  7th  of  June,  1906,  I  had  been  informed  by  my 
friend  Dr.  Ostwalt,  the  skilled  oculist,  who  was  at  that  time 
treating  Eusapia,  that  she  was  to  be  at  his  house  that  even- 
ing and  that  perhaps  I  would  be  able  to  try  a  new  experi- 


16  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

mcnt.  I  accepted  with  all  the  more  readiness  because  the 
mother-in-law  of  the  doctor,  ]\Ime.  Werner,  to  whom  I  had 
been  attached  by  a  friendship  of  more  than  thirty  years, 
had  been  dead  a  year,  and  had  many  a  time  promised  me, 
in  the  most  formal  manner,  to  appear  after  her  death  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  completeness  to  my  psychical  re- 
searches by  a  manifestation,  if  the  thing  was  possible.  We 
had  so  often  conversed  on  these  subjects,  and  she  was  so 
deeply  interested  in  them,  that  she  had  renewed  her  prom- 
ise very  emphatically  a  few  days  before  her  death.  And 
at  the  same  time  she  made  a  similar  promise  to  her  daughter 
and  to  her  son-in-law. 

Eusapia,  also,  on  her  part,  grateful  for  the  care  she  had 
received  at  the  doctor's  hands  and  for  the  curing  of  her 
eye,  wished  to  be  agreeable  to  him  in  any  way  she  could. 

The  conditions,  then,  were  in  all  respects  excellent.  I 
agreed  with  the  doctor  that  we  had  before  us  four  possible 
liypotheses,  and  that  we  should  seek  to  fix  on  the  most  proba- 
ble one. 

a.  What  would  take  place  might  be  due  to  fraud,  con- 
scious or  imconscious. 

h.  The  phenomena  might  be  produced  by  a  physical  force 
cmanntiiig  from  the  medium. 

c.  Or  by  one  or  several  invisible  entities  making  use  of 
this  force. 

d.  Or  by  ^Mme.  Werner  herself. 

We  had  on  that  evening  some  movements  of  the  table  and 
a  complete  lifting  of  the  four  feet  to  a  height  of  about 
eigiit  inches.  Six  of  us  sat  around  the  table, —  Eusapia, 
^ladame  and  ^Monsieur  Ostwalt,  their  son  Pierre,  sixteen 
years  old,  my  wife  and  myself.  Our  hands  placed  above 
tlio  table  scarcely  touched  it,  and  were  almost  wholly  de- 
tached  at  the  moment  it  rose  from  the  floor.  No  fraud  pos- 
sible.    Eull  light. 


f 


u:n'k^^ow:n-  natural  foeces  17 

The  seance  then  continued  in  the  dark.  The  two  por- 
tieres of  a  great  double-folding  door,  against  which  the  me- 
dium was  seated,  her  back  to  the  door,  w^ere  blown  about 
for  nearly  an  hour,  sometimes  so  violently  as  to  form  some- 
thing like  a  monk's  hood  on  the  head  of  the  doctor  and  that 
of  his  wife. 

This  great  door  was  several  times  shaken  violently,  and 
tremendous  blows  were  struck  upon  it. 

We  tried  to  obtain  words  by  means  of  the  alphabet,  but 
without  success.  (I  will  remark  in  this  connection  that 
Eusapia  know^s  neither  how  to  read  nor  to  write.) 

Pierre  Ostwalt  was  able  to  write  a  word  with  the  pencil. 
It  seemed  as  if  an  invisible  force  was  guiding  his  hand.  The 
word  he  pencilled  down  w^as  the  first  name  of  Mme.  Werner, 
well  hnoivn  to  him. 

In  spite  of  all  our  efforts,  we  w^ere  unable  to  obtain  a 
single  proof  of  identity.  Yet  it  would  have  been  very  easy 
for  Mme.  Werner  to  find  one,  as  she  had  so  solemnly  prom- 
ised us  to  do. 

In  spite  of  the  announcement  by  raps  that  an  apparition 
would  appear  which  we  would  be  permitted  to  see,  w^e  w^ere 
only  able  to  perceive  a  dim  white  form,  devoid  of  precise  out- 
line, even  when  w^e  manipulated  the  light  so  as  to  get  al- 
most complete  darkness.  Prom  this  new  sitting  the  follow- 
ing conclusions  are  deduced : 

a.  Fraud  cannot  explain  the  phenomena,  especially  the 
levitation  of  the  table,  the  violent  blows  and  shakings  given 
to  the  door,  and  the  projection  of  the  curtain  into  the  room. 

h.  These  phenomena  are  certainly  produced  by  a  force 
emanating  from  the  medium,  for  they  all  occur  in  her  imme- 
diate neighborhood. 

c.  This  force  is  intelligent.  But  it  is  possible  that  this 
intelligence  which  obeys  our  requests  is  only  that  of  the 
medium. 


t 


18  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

d.  Xothing  proves  that  the  spirit  evoked  had  any  influ- 
ence. 

These  propositions,  however,  will  be  examined  and  de- 
veloped one  by  one  in  the  pages  that  follow. 

All  the  experiments  described  in  this  first  chapter  reveal 
to  us  unkno\\'n  forces  in  operation.  It  w^ill  be  the  same  in 
the  chapters  that  follow. 

These  phenomena  are  so  unexplained,  so  inexplicable,  so 
incredible,  that  the  simplest  plan  is  to  deny  them,  to  attrib- 
ute them  all  to  fraud  or  to  hallucination,  and  to  believe 
that  all  the  participators  are  sand-blind. 

Unfortunately  for  our  opponents,  this  hypothesis  is  inad- 
missible. 

Let  me  say  here  that  there  are  very  few  men  —  and  above 
all,  women  —  whose  spirit  is  completely  free;  that  is,  in  a 
condition  capable  of  accepting,  without  any  preconceived 
idea,  new  or  unexplained  facts.  In  general,  people  are  dis- 
posed to  admit  only  those  facts  or  things  for  which  they  are 
prepared  by  the  ideas  they  have  received,  cherished,  and 
maintained.  Perhaps  there  is  not  one  human  being  in  a 
hundred  who  is  capable  of  making  a  mental  record  of  a  new 
impression,  simply,  freely,  exactly,  with  the  accuracy  of  a 
])hotographic  camera.  Absolute  independence  of  judgment 
is  a  rare  thing  among  men. 

A  single  fact  accurately  observed,  even  if  it  should  con- 
tradict all  science,  is  worth  more  than  all  the  hypotheses. 

Put  only  the  independent  minds,  free  from  the  classic 
leading-strings  which  tie  the  dogmatists  to  their  chairs, 
daro  to  study  extra-scientific  facts  or  consider  them  pos- 
sible. 

I  am  acquainted  with  emdite  men  of  genius,  members 
of  the  Academy  <»f  Sciences,  professors  at  the  university, 
masters  in  our  gn^at  schools,  avIio  reason  in  the  following 
way:     ''Such  and   such  phenomena  are  impossible  because 


UNKNOWN  NATURAL  FORCES  19 

they  are  in  contradiction  with  the  actual  state  of  science. 
We  should  only  admit  what  we  can  explain.'' 

They  call  that  scientific  reasoning! 

Examples. —  Frauenhofer  discovers  that  the  solar  spec- 
trum is  crossed  by  dark  lines.  These  dark  lines  could  not 
be  explained  in  his  time.  Therefore  we  ought  not  to  be- 
lieve in  them. 

Newton  discovers  that  *the  stars  move  as  if  they  were 
governed  by  an  attractive  force.  This  attraction  could  not 
be  explained  in  his  time.  Nor  is  it  explained  to-day.  New- 
ton himself  takes  the  pains  to  declare  that  he  does  not  wish 
to  explain  it  by  an  hypothesis.  ''  Hypotheses  non  fingo  " 
('^  I  do  not  make  hypotheses  ").  So,  after  the  reasoning  of 
our  pseudo-logicians,  we  ought  not  to  admit  universal  gravi- 
tation. Oxygen  combined  with  hydrogen  forms  water. 
How  ?  We  don't  know.  Hence  w^e  ought  not  to  admit  the 
fact. 

Stones  sometimes  fall  from  the  sky.  The  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  the  eighteenth  century,  not  being  able  to  divine 
where  they  came  from,  simply  denied  the  fact,  which  had 
been  observed  for  thousands  of  years.  They  denied  also  that 
fish  and  toads  can  fall  from  the  clouds,  because  it  had  not 
then  been  observed  that  waterspouts  draw  them  up  by  suction 
and  transport  them  from  one  place  to  another.  A  medium 
places  his  hand  upon  a  table  and  seems  actually  to  transmit 
to  it  independent  life.  It  is  inexplicable,  therefore  it  is 
false.  Yet  that  is  the  predominant  method  of  reasoning  of 
a  great  number  of  scholars.  They  are  only  willing  to  admit 
what  is  known  and  explained.  They  declared  that  locomo- 
tives would  not  be  able  to  move,  or,  if  they  did  succeed,  rail- 
ways would  introduce  no  change  in  social  relations ;  that  the 
transatlantic  telegraph  would  never  transmit  a  despatch ;  that 
vaccine  would  not  render  immune;  and  at  one  time  they 
stoutly  maintained  (this  was  long  ago)  that  the  earth  does 


20  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

not  revolve.     It  seems  that  they  even  condemned  Galileo. 

Everything  lias  been  denied. 

Apropos  of  facts  somewhat  similar  to  those  we  are  here 
studying, —  1  mean  the  stigmata  of  Louise  Lateau, —  a  very 
famous  German  scholar,  Professor  Virchow,  closed  his  report 
to  the  Berlin  Academy  Avith  this  dilemma:  Fraud  or 
Miracle.  This  conclusion  acquired  a  classic  vogue.  But  it 
was  an  error,  for  it  is  now  known  that  stigmata  are  due 
neither  to  fraud  nor  miracle. 

Another  rather  common  objection  is  presented  by  certain 
/persons  apparently  scientific.  Confounding  experience  with 
S  observation,  they  imagine  that  a  natural  phenomenon,  in 
J  order  to  be  real,  ought  to  be  able  to  be  produced  at  will,  as 
in  a  laboratory.  After  this  manner  of  looking  at  things, 
an  eclij)se  of  the  sun  would  not  be  a  real  thing,  nor  a  stroke 
of  lightning  which  sets  fire  to  a  house,  nor  an  aerolite  that 
falls  from  the  sky.  An  earthquake,  a  volcanic  eruption,  are 
phenomena  of  observation,  not  of  experiment.  But  they 
none  the  less  exist,  often  to  the  great  damage  of  the  human 
race.  Xow,  in  the  order  of  facts  that  we  are  studying  here, 
we  can  almost  never  experiment,  but  only  observe,  and  this 
reduces  considerably  the  range  of  the  field  of  study.  And, 
even  when  we  do  experiment,  the  phenomena  are  not  pro- 
duced at  will:  certain  elements,  several  of  which  w^e  have 
not  yet  been  able  to  get  hold  of,  intervene  to  cross,  modify, 
and  thwart  them,  so  that  for  the  most  part  we  can  only 
play  the  role  of  observers.  The  difference  is  analogous  to 
that  which  separates  chemistry  from  astronomy.  In  chem- 
istry wo  experiment:  in  astronomy  we  observe.  But  this 
does  not  hinder  astronomy  from  being  the  most  exact  of  the 
sciences. 

Mediumistic  phenomena  that  come  directly  under  the  ob- 
servation, notably  those  I  have  described  some  pages  back, 
have  for  me  the  stamp  of  absolute  certainty  and  incontesta- 


I 


u:n'kkown  :n'atural  forces  21 

bility,  and  amply  suffice  to  prove  that  unknown  physical 
forces  exist  outside  of  the  ordinary  and  established  domain 
of  natural  philosophy.  As  a  principle,  moreover,  this  is  an 
unimpeachable  tenet.* 

I  could  adduce  still  other  instances,  for  example  the  fol- 
lowing : 

7.  During  seance  experiments,  phantoms  often  appear, — 
hands,  arms,  a  head,  a  bust,  an  entire  human  figure.  I  was 
a  witness  of  this  thing,  especially  on  July  27,  1897,  at 
Montfortd'Amaury  (see  Chapter  111).  M.  de  Fontenay 
having  declared  that  he  perceived  an  image  or  spirit  over 
the  table,  between  himself  and  me  (we  were  sitting  face  to 
face,  keeping  watch  over  Eusapia,  he  holding  one  of  her 
hands,  and  I  the  other),  and  I  seeing  nothing  at  all,  I  asked 
him  to  change  places  with  me.  And  then  I,  too,  perceived 
this  spirit-shadow,  the  head  of  a  bearded  man,  rather  vaguely 
outlined,  which  was  moving  like  a  silhouette,  advancing  and 
retiring  in  front  of  a  red  lantern  placed  on  a  piece  of  fur- 
niture. I  had  not  been  able  to  see  at  first  from  where  I  sat, 
because  the  lantern  w^as  then  behind  me,  and  the  spectral  ap- 
pearance was  formed  between  M.  de  Eontenay  and  me.  As 
this  dark  silhouette  remained  rather  vague,  I  asked  if  I  could 
not  touch  its  beard.  The  medium  replied,  "  Stretch  out 
your  hand."  I  then  felt  upon  the  back  of  my  hand  the 
brushing  of  a  very  soft  beard. 

This  case  did  not  have  for  me  the  same  absolute  certainty 
as  the  preceding.     There  are  degrees  in  the  feeling  of  se- 
curity we  have  in  observations.     In  astronomy,  even,  there     u 
are  stars  at  the  limit  of  visibility.     And  ^et  in  the  opin-  jj^^^"*^*, 
jjilL-of  alljjia^articipators  in^the  seance  there^was  SP-^^^^^'-ZT^bJ^^ 
Besides,  on  another  occasion,  at  my  own  home,  I  saw  an-      .      . 
other  figure,  that  of  a  young  girl,  as  the  reader  will  see  in        \a>a>*-.. 
the  third  chapter. 

*  See  Ulnconnu,  pp.  20-29. 


22  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EGRCES 

8.  That  same  day,  at  Montfort,  in  the  course  of  the  con- 
versation, some  one  reealled  the  circumstance  that  the 
"  spirits "  have  sometimes  impressed  on  paraffin  or  putty 
or  clay  the  print  of  their  head  or  of  their  hands, —  a  thing 
that  seems  in  the  last  degree  absurd.  But  we  bought  some 
putty  at  a  glazier's  and  fixed  up  in  a  wooden  box  a  perfectly 
soft  cake.  At  the  end  of  the  seance  there  was  the  imprint 
of  a  head,  of  a  face,  in  this  putty.  In  this  case,  no  more 
than  in  the  other,  nm^h  absolutely  ceriain  there  was  no 
trickery.     We  will  speak  of  it  farther  on. 

Other  manifestations  will  be  noted  in  subsequent  pages 
of  this  book.  Stopping  right  here,  for  the  present,  at  the 
special  point  of  view  of  the  proved  existence  of  unknown 
forces,  I  will  confine  myself  to  the  six  preceding  cases,  re- 
garding thorn  as  incontestable,  in  the  judgment  of  any  man 
of  good  faith  or  of  any  observer.  If  I  have  considered  these 
particular  cases  so  early  in  the  work,  it  is  in  response  to 
readers  of  my  works  who  have  been  begging  me  for  a  long 
time  to  give  my  personal  observations. 

The  simplest  of  these  manifestations  —  that  of  raps,  for 
exami)lo  —  is  not  a  negligible  asset.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
it  is  one  or  another  of  the  experimenters,  or  their  dynamic 
resultant,  that  raps  in  the  table  without  knowing  how.  So, 
even  if  it  should  be  a  psychic  entity  unknown  to  the  medi- 
ums, it  evidently  makes  use  of  them,  of  their  physiological 
properties.  Such  a  fact  is  not  without  scientific  interest. 
The  denials  of  scepticism  prove  nothing,  unless  it  be  that 
the  deniers  tliemselves  have  not  observed  the  phenomena. 

I  have  no  other  aim  in  this  first  chapter  than  to  give  a 
preliminary  summary  of  the  observed  facts. 

I  do  not  desire  to  put  forth  in  these  first  pages  any  ex- 
planatorv  hypotliesis.  My  readers  will  themselves  form  an 
opinion  from  tlie  narratives  that  follow,  and  the  last  chapter 
of  the  volume  will  be  devoted  to  theories.     Yet  I  believe  it 


UNKIS^OWX  XATUEAL  EOECES  23 

will  be  useful  to  call  attention  at  once  to  the  fact  thatsjnatj^ 
is  not,  in  reality,  what  it  appears  to  be  to  our  vulgar  senses, —     \ 
to  our  sense  of  touch,  to  our  vision, —  but  that  it  is  identicalV^ 
with  eeefgy,  and  is  only  a  manifestation  of  the  movement  of 
invisiT3le   and   imponderable   elements.     The   universe   is   a 
dynamism.     Matt^ris  only  an  appearance.     It  will  be  use- 
ful for  the  reader  to  bear  this  truth  in  mind,  as  it  will  help 
him  to  comprehend  the  studies  we  are  about  to  make. 

The  mysterious  forces  w^e  are  here  studying  are  themselves 
manifestations  of  the  universal  dynamism  with  which  oui 
five  senses  put  us  very  imperfectly  into  relation. 

These  things  belong  to  the  psychical  order  as  well  as  to  the 
physical.  They  prove  that  we  are  living  in  the  midst  of  an 
unexplored  world,  in  which  the  psychic  forces  play  a  role 
as  yet  very  imperfectly  studied. 

We  have  here  a  situation  analogous  to  that  in  which  Chris- 
topher Columbus  found  himself  on  the  evening  of  the  day 
when  he  perceived  the  first  hints  of  land  in  the  New  World. 
We  are  pushing  our  prow  through  an  absolutely  unknown 
sea. 


CHAPTER  II 

MY  FIRST  SEANCES  IX  THE  ALLAN  KAEDEC  GEOUP  AND  WITH 
THE  MEDIUMS  OF  THAT  EPOCH 

One  day  in  tbe  month  of  Xovember,  1861,  under  the  Gale- 
ries  de  TOdeon,*  I  spied  a  book,  the  title  of  which  struck 
me, —  Le  Llvre  des  Esprits  ('^  The  Book  of  Spirits"),  by 
Alhin  Kardt'c.  I  bought  it  and  read  it  with  avidity,  several 
chai)tcrs  seeming  to  me  to  agree  with  the  scientific  bases  of 
the  book  I  was  tlien  writing,  TJie  Plurality  of  Inhabited 
Worlds.  I  hunted  up  the  author,  who  proposed  that  I 
should  enter,  as  a  free  associated  member,  the  Parisian 
Society  for  Spiritualistic  Studies,  which  he  had  founded, 
and  of  which  he  was  president.  I  accepted,  and  by  chance 
have  just  found  the  green  ticket  signed  by  him  on  the  fif- 
teenth day  of  Xovember,  18G1.  This  is  the  date  of  my  debut 
in  psychic  studies.  I  was  then  nineteen,  and  for  three  years 
had  been  an  astronomical  pupil  at  the  Paris  Observatory. 
At  this  time  I  was  putting  the  last  touches  to  the  book  I  just 
mentioned,  the  first  edition  of  which  was  published  some 
months  afterwards  by  tlie  printer-publisher  of  the  Observa- 
tory. 

The  members  came  together  every  Friday  evening  in  the 
assembly  room  of  the  society,  in  the  little  passageway  of 
Sainto  Anne,  which  was  placed  under  the  protection  of 
Saint  Louis.  The  president  opened  the  seance  by  an  "  in- 
vocation to  the  good  spirits."  It  was  admitted,  as  a  prin- 
ciple, that  invisible  spirits  were  present  there  and  revealed 

*  Certain  book-shops  in  Paris. —  Trans. 
24 


MY  riEST  EXPEEIME^TTS  25 

themselves.  After  tins  invocation  a  certain  number  of  per- 
sons, seated  at  a  large  table,  were  besonght  to  abandon  them- 
selves to  their  inspiratioi).  and  to  write.  Thej  were  called 
"  writing  mediums."  Their  dissertations  were  afterwards 
read  before  an  attentive  audience.  There  were  no  physical 
experiments  of  table-turning,  or  tables  moving  or  speaking. 
The  president,  Allan  Kardec,  said  he  attached  no  value  to 
such  things  It  seemed  to  him  that  the  instructions  com- 
municated by  the  spirits  ought  to  form  the  basis  of  a  new 
doctrine,  of  a  sort  of  religion. 

At  the  same  period,  but  several  years  earlier,  my  illus- 
trious friend  Victorien  Sardou,  who  had  been  an  occasional 
frequenter  of  the  Observatory,  had  written,  as  a  medium, 
some  curious  pages  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  planet  Jupiter, 
and  had  produced  picturesque  and  surprising  designs,  hav- 
ing as  their  aim  to  represent  men  and  things  as  they  ap- 
peared in  this  giant  of  worlds.  He  designed  the  dwellings 
of  people  in  Jupiter.  One  of  his  sketches  showed  us  the 
house  of  Mozart,  others  the  houses  of  Zoroaster  and  of  Ber- 
nard Palissy,  who  were  country  neighbors  in  one  of  the  land- 
scapes of  this  immense  planet.  The  dwellings  are  ethereal 
and  of  an  exquisite  lightness.  They  may  be  judged  of  by  the 
two  figures  here  reproduced  (PL  II  and  III).  The  first 
represents  a  residence  of  Zoroaster,  the  second  "  the  animals' 
quarters  "  belonging  to  the  same.  On  the  grounds  are  flow- 
ers, hammocks,  swings,  flying  creatures,  and,  below,  intelli- 
gent animals  playing  a  special  kind  of  ninepins  where  the 
fun  is  not  to  knock  down  the  pins,  but  to  put  a  cap  on  them, 
as  in  the  cup  and  ball  toy,  etc. 

These  curious  drawings  prove  indubitably  that  the  sig- 
nature ^'  Bernard  Palissy,  of  Jupiter,"  is  apocryphal  and 
that  the  hand  of  Victorien  Sardou  was  not  directed  by  a 
spirit  from  that  planet.  Xor  was  it  the  gifted  author  him- 
self who  planned  these  sketches  and  executed  them  in  accord- 


26  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

ance  with  a  definite  plan.  They  were  made  while  he  was 
'in  the  condition  of  mediumship.  A  person  is  not  mag- 
netized, nor  hypnotized,  nor  put  to  sleep  in  any  w^ay  while 
in  that  state.  But  the  brain  is  not  ignorant  of  what  is  taking 
pLace:  its  cells  perform  their  functions,  and  act  (doubtless 
by  a  reflex  movement)  upon  the  motor  ner^^es.  At  that  time 
we  all  thought  Jupiter  was  inhabited  by  a  superior  race  of 
beings.  The  spiritistic  communications  were  the  reflex  of 
the  general  ideas  in  the  air.  To-day,  with  our  present  knowl- 
edge of  the  planets,  w^e  should  not  imagine  anything  of  the 
kind  about  that  globe.  And,  moreover,  spiritualistic  seances 
have  never  taught  us  anything  upon  the  subject  of  astronomy. 
Such  results  as  were  attained  fail  utterly  to  prove  the  inter- 
vention of  spirits.  Have  the  ^vriting  mediums  given  any 
more  convincing  proofs  of  it  than  these  ?  This  is  what  we 
shall  have  to  examine  in  as  impartial  a  way  as  we  can. 

I  myself  tried  to  see  if  I,  too,  could  not  write.  By  col- 
lecting and  concentrating  my  powers  and  allowing  my  hand 
to  bo  passive  and  unresistant,  I  soon  found  that,  after  it  had 
traced  certain  dashes,  and  o's,  and  sinuous  lines  more  or 
less  interlaced,  verv  much  as  a  four-year-old  child  learning 
to  write  might  do,  it  finally  did  actually  ^^Tite  words  and 
phrases. 

In  these  meetings  of  the  Parisian  Society  for  Spiritual- 
istic Studies,  I  wrote  for  my  part,  some  pages  on  astro- 
nomical subjects  signed  "  Galileo."  The  communications 
remained  in  the  possession  of  the  society,  and  in  1867  Allan 
Kardoc  published  them  under  the  head  General  U ranograpliy , 
in  liis  work  entitled  Genesis.  (I  have  preser\'ed  one  of  the 
first  copies,  with  his  dedication.)  These  astronomical  pages 
taught  me  nothing.  So  I  was  not  slow  in  concluding  that 
they  were  only  the  echo  of  what  I  already  knew,  and  that 
Galileo  had   no  hand   in   them.     AAHicn   I  wrote  the  pages, 


•:^T 


Zi^f 


^^^^^^f^ 


MY  FIEST  EXPERIMENTS  27 

I  was  in  a  kind  of  waking  dream.     Besides,  my  hand  stopped   ) 
writing  when  I  began  to  think  of  other  subjects. 

I  maj  quote  here  what  I  said  on  this  subject  in  my  work, 
The  Worlds  of  Space  (Les  Terres  die  del),  in  the  edition 
of  1884,  p.  181 :  — 

The  writing  medium  is  not  put  to  sleep,  nor  is  he  mag- 
netized or  hypnotized  in  any  way.  One  is  simply  received 
into  a  circle  of  determinate  ideas.  The  brain  acta  (by 
the  mediation  of  the  nervous  system)  a  little  differently 
from  what  it  does  in  its  normal  state.  The  difference  is  not 
so  great  as  one  might  suppose.  The  chief  difference  may  be 
described  as  follows : 

In  the  normal  state  we  think  of  what  we  are  going  to  write 
before  the  act  of  writing  begins.  There  is  a  direct  action 
of  the  will  in  causing  the  pen,  the  hand,  and  the  fore-arm  to 
move  over  the  paper.  In  the  abnormal  state,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  do  not  think  before  writing;  we  do  not  move  the 
hand,  but  let  it  remain  inert,  passive,  free ;  we  place  it  upon 
the  paper,  taking  care  merely  that  it  shall  meet  with  the 
least  possible  resistance;  we  think  of  a  word,  a  figure,  a 
stroke  of  the  pen,  and  the  hand  of  its  own  volition  begins 
to  write.  But  the  writing  medium  must  think  of  what  he 
is  doing,  not  beforehand,  but  continuously;  otherwise  the 
hand  stops.  For  example,  try  to  write  the  word  "  ocean," 
not  voluntarily  (the  ordinary  way),  but  by  simply  taking  a 
lead-pencil,  and  letting  the  hand  rest  lightly  and  freely  upon 
the  paper,  while  3^ou  think  of  your  word 'and  observe  care- 
fully whether  the  hand  will  write.  Very  good;  it  does  be- 
gin to  move  over  the  paper,  writing  first  an  o,  then  a  c,  and 
the  rest.  At  least  that  was  my  experience  when  I  was  study- 
ing the  new  problems  of  spiritualism  and  magnetism. 

I  have  always  thought  that  the  circle  of  science  is  not  a 
closed  one,  and  that  there  are  many  things  for  us  still  to 
learn.  In  the  mediumistic  writing  experiments  it  is  very 
easy  to  deceive  ourselves  and  to  believe  th a t"tlie"S^Il^is  under 
the  infloience  of  another  mind  than  our  own.  The  most  \ 
pr  obableconcTtRT^iTregar  ding^iese  experiences  has  been  that  i 
the  theory  of  the  action  of  foreign  spirits  is  not  necessary  ^y 


28  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

for  the  explanation  of  such  phenomena.  But  this  is  not  the 
place  to  enter  into  details  upon  a  subject  which,  up  to  the 
present  time,  has  been  only  slightly  examined  by  scientific 
criticism,  having  more  often  been  exploited  by  speculators 
than  studied  by  scientists. 

So  I  wrote  in  1884;  and  I  will  indorse  every  word  I  then, 
wrote,  just  as  it  stands. 

In  these  first  experiences  with  Spiritualists,  of  which  I 
have  just  been  speaking,  I  soon  had  the  entree  of  the  chief 
Parisian  circles  devoted  to  these  matters,  and  for  a  couple 
of  years  I  even  took  the  position  of  honorary  secretary  of  one 
of  them.  A  natural  or  necessary  result  of  this  was  that  I  did 
not  miss  a  single  seance. 

Three  different  methods  were  employed  to  receive  com- 
munications :  (1)  writing  with  the  hand ;  (2)  the  use  of  the 
planchette  to  which  a  lead-pencil  was  attached,  and  on  which 
the  hands  were  placed;  and  (3)  table-rapping  (or  table-mov- 
ing), operated  by  the  alphabetic  code,  these  raps  or  the  move- 
ments of  the  table  marking  the  desired  letter  as  the  alphabet 
was  read  aloud  by  one  of  those  present. 

The  first  of  these  methods  w^as  the  only  one  employed  at  the 
Society  for  Spiritualistic  Studies,  of  which  Allan  Kardec  was 
president.  It  was^ie  one  which  permitted  the  margin  for 
the  most  doubt.  In  fact,  at  the  end  of  two  years  of  in- 
vestigations of  this  kind,  which  I  had  varied  as  much  as 
possible,  and  which  I  had  entered  upon  without  any  precon- 
ceived idea  for  or  against,  and  with  the  most  ardent  desire 
to  arrive  at  the  tnith,  I  came  to  the  positive  conclusion 
that  not  only  are  the  signatures  of  these  papers  not  authentic, 
but  that  the  intervention  of  another  mind  from  the  spirit 
world  is  not  proved  at  all,  the  fact  being  that  we  ourselves 
are  the  more  or  less  conscious  authors  of  the  communica- 
tions by  some  cerebral  process  which  yet  remains  to  be  in- 
vestigated.     The  explanation  is  not  so  simple  as  it  seems,  and 


MY  PIRST  EXPERIMENTS  29 

there  are  certain  reservations  to  be  made  in  the  general  state- 
ment above. 

When  writing  in  the  exalted  and  abnormal  state  of  mind 
of  the  medium,  we  do  not,  as  I  have  just  said,  form  our 
phrases  as  in  the  normal  condition ;  rather  we  wait  for  them 
.to  be  produced.  But  all  the  same  our  own  mind  mingles 
in  the  process.  The  subject  treated  follows  the  lines  of  our 
own  customary  thoughts;  the  language  employed  is  our  na- 
tive tongue,  and,  if  we  are  uncertain  about  the  spelling  of 
certain  words,  errors  will  appear.  Furthermore,  so  inti- 
mately are  our  own  mental  processes  mingled  with  what  is 
being  written  that,  if  we  allow  our  thoughts  to  wander  to 
another  topic,  the  hand  either  stops  writing  or  produces  in- 
coherent words  and  scrawls.  This  is  the  mental  state  of  the 
writing  medium, — •  at  least  that  which  I  have  observed  in 
myself.  It  is  a  kind  of  auto-suggestion.  I  hasten  to  add, 
however,  that  tEnsopinion  only  binds  me  to  the  extent  of 
my  own  personal  experiences.  I  am  assured  that  there  are 
mediums  who  act  in  an  absolutely  mechanical  way,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  nature  of  what  they  are  writing  (see  further 
on,  pp.  58,  59),  who  treat  subjects  of  which  they  are  ignorant, 
and  also  even  write  in  foreign  languages.  Such  cases  would 
be  different  from  that  of  which  I  have  just  been  speaking,\ 
and  would  indicate  either  a  special  cerebral  state  or  great/ 
keenness  of  intellect,  or  a  source  of  ideas  exterior  to  tha 
medium ;  i,e,,  if  it  were  once  proved  that  our  mind  cannoc 
divine  that  of  which  it  is  ignorant.  But  now  the  transfer- 
ence of  thought  from  one  brain  to  another,  frOm-©e€nnind 
to  another,  is  a  fact  proved  by  telepathy.  We  could  con- 
ceive, then,  that  a  medium  might  write  under  the  influence 
of  some  one  near  by  —  or  even  at  a  distance.  Several  me- 
diums have  also  composed  (in  successive  seances)  genuine  ro- 
mances, such  as  The  History  of  Joan  of  Arc,  Written  hy 
M^rself,  or  certain  voyages  to  other  planets, —  seeming  to 


30  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

indicate  that  there  is  a  kind  of  doubling  of  the  personality  of 
the  subject,  a  secondary  personality.  But  there  is  no  au- 
thentication of  this.  There  is  also  a  psychic  milieu,  of  which 
I  shall  speak  farther  on.  At  present  I  must  concern  myself 
only  with  the  subject  of  this  chapter,  and  say  with  Xewton, 
''  Hypotheses  non  fingo/' 

Allan  Kardec  died  on  the  30th  of  March,  1869,  and,  when 
the  Society  of  Spiritualists  came  to  ask  me  to  deliver  a 
funeral  oration  at  his  tomb,  I  took  occasion,  during  this  dis- 
course, to  direct  the  attention  of  the  Spiritualists  to  the 
scientific  character  of  investigations  of  this  class  and  to  the 
manifest  danger  of  allowing  ourselves  to  be  drawn  into 
mysticism. 

I  will  reproduce  at  this  point  a  few  paragraphs  taken  from 
this  address: 

I  wish  I  could  impress  upon  you  who  hear  me,  as  well  as 
upon  the  millions  of  men  throughout  Europe  and  in  the 
Xew  World  who  are  studying  the  still  mysterious  problem  of 
spiritualism,  what  a  deep  scientific  interest  and  what  a 
philosophic  future  there  is  in  the  study  of  these  phenomena, 
to  which,  as  you  know,  many  of  our  most  eminent  living 
scholars  have  given  their  time  and  attention.  I  wish  I  could 
present  to  your  imagination  and  theirs  the  new  and  vast 
horizons  we  shall  see  opening  up  before  us  in  proportion  as 
we  broaden  our  scientific  knowledge  of  the  forces  of  nature 
at  work  around  us;  and  I  would  that  I  could  show  both 
you  and  them  that  such  conquests  of  the  mind  are  the 
most  efficacious  antidote  to  the  leprosy  of  atheism  which 
seems  to  be  particularly  the  malignant  degenerative  element 
in  tiiis  our  epoch  of  transition. 

What  a  salutary  tiling  it  would  be  could  I  but  prove  here, 
before  this  eloquent  tomb,  that  the  methodical  examination 
of  the  phenomena  erroneously  called  supernatural,  far  from 
calling  back  the  spirit  of  superstition,  and  weakening  the 
energy  of  the  reason,  serves,  on  the  contrary,  to  banish  the 
errors  and  illusions  of  ignorance,  and  assists  the  progress  of 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIMEIv^TS  31 

truth,  mucli  more  than  do  the  irrational  negations  of  those 
who  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  look  at  the  facts. 

It  is  high  time  now  that  this  complex  subject  of  study 
should  enter  upon  its  scientific  period.  Enough  stress  has 
not  been  laid  upon  the  physical  side  of  the  subject,  which 
should  be  critically  studied;  for  without  rigid  scientific  ex- 
periment no  proof  is  valid.  This  objective  a  priori  method 
of  investigation,  to  which,  we  owe  the  glory  of  modern  prog- 
ress and  the  marvels  of  electricity  and  steam,  should  take 
up  the  still  unexplained  and  mysterious  phenomena  with 
which  we  are  acquainted,  to  dissect  them,  measure  them,  and 
to  define  them. 

For,  gentlemen,  spiritualism  is  not  a  religion,  hut  a  sci- 
ence, a  science  of  wliich  we  as  yet  scarcely  know  the  a,  h,  c. 
The  age  of  dogma  is  past.  Xature  includes  the  Universe; 
and  God  himself,  who  was  in  old  times  conceived  of  as  a 
being  of  similar  shape  and  form  as  man,  cannot  be  considered 
by  modern  metaphysics  as  other  than  Mind  in  Nature. 

The  supernatural  does  not  exist.  The  manifestations  ob- 
tained by  the  agency  of  mediums,  such  as  those  of  magnetism 
and  somnambulism,  belong  to  the  order  of  nature  and  ought 
to  be  inexorably  submitted  to  the  test  of  experiment.  There 
are  no  more  miracles.  We  are  w^itnessing  the  dawning  of  a 
new  science.  Who  is  there  so  bold  as  to  predict  whither  the 
scientific  study  of  the  new  psychology  will  lead,  and  w^hat  the 
results  will  be  ? 

The  limitations  of  human  vision  are  such  that  the  eye 
only  sees  things  between  narrow  bounds,  and  beyond  these 
limits,  on  this  side  and  on  that,  it  sees  nothing.  The  body 
may  be  compared  to  a  harp  of  two  chords, —  the  optic  nerve 
and  the  auditory  nerve.  One  kind  of  vibrations  excites  the 
first  and  another  kind  the  second.  That  is  the  whole  story 
of  human  sensation,  which  is  even  inferior  to  that  of  many 
of  the  lower  animals ;  certain  insects,  for  example,  in  whom 
the  nerves  of  vision  and  of  hearing  are  more  delicate  than 
in  man. 

Now  there  are  in  nature,  not  two,  but  ten,  a  hundred,  a 
thousand  kinds  of  movement  or  vibration.  We  learn,  then, 
from  physical  science,  that  we  are  living  in  the  midst  of  a 


32  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

world  invisible  to  us,  and  that  it  is  not  impossible  that  there 
may  be  living  upon  the  earth  a  class  of  beings,  also  invisible 
to  us,  endowed  with  a  wholly  different  kind  of  senses,  so 
that  there  is  no  way  by  which  they  can  make  themselves 
known  to  us,  unless  they  can  manifest  themselves  in  acts 
and  ways  that  can  come  within  the  range  of  our  own  order 
of  sensations. 

In  the  presence  of  such  truths  as  these,  which  have  as  yet 
only  been  barely  announced,  how  absurd  and  worthless  seems 
mere  blind  denial !  When  wt  \:ompare  the  little  that  we  know 
and  the  narrow  limits  of  our  range  of  perception  with  the 
vast  extent  of  the  field  of  knowledge,  we  can  scarcely  refrain 
from  the  conclusion  that  we  know  nothing  and  that  every- 
thing yet  remains  to  be  kno^vn.  With  what  right  do  we 
pronounce  the  word  "  impossible  "  in  the  presence  of  tacts 
wdiich  we  prove  to  be  genuine  without  yet  being  able  to  dis- 
cover their  causes  ? 

It  is  by  the  scientific  study  of  effects  that  we  arrive  at 
the  determination  of  causes.  In  the  class  of  investigations 
wdiich  we  group  under  the  general  head  '^  Spiritualism," 
FACTS  EXIST.  But  HO  ouo  understands  the  method  of  their 
production.  Their  existence,  nevertheless,  is  just  as  true  as 
the  phenomena  of  electricity. 

But,  as  for  understanding  them  —  why,  gentlemen,  no- 
body understands  biologA^,  physiology,  psychology.  What  is 
the  human  body  ?  What  is  the  brain  ?  What  is  the  absolute 
action  of  the  soul  or  mind  ?  We  do  not  know.  And,  neither 
do  we  know  anything  whatever  of  the  essence  of  electricity 
or  the  essence  of  light.  It  is  prudent,  then,  to  observe  with 
unbiased  judgment  all  such  matters  as  these,  and  to  try  to 
determine  their  causes,  wdiich  are  perhaps  of  different  kinds 
and  more  numerous  than  has  ever  been  supposed  up  to  the 
present  time.* 

It  will  bo  soon  that  what  I  publicly  uttered  as  I  stood  on 
the  liillock  above  the  grave  into  which  Allan  Kardoc's  coffin 

♦  Orntion  dclivorod  at  iho  pravo  of  Allan  Kardec,  by  Camille  Flam- 
marion,  FariH,  Didicr,  18G9,  pp.  4    17,  22.^ 


MY  FIEST  EXPERIMEiSTTS  33 

had  just  been  lowered  differs  not  at  all  from  the  purely 
scientific  program  of  the  present  work. 

I  have  just  said  that  there  w^ere  three  methods  employed 
in  our  spiritistic  experiments.  I  have  given  my  opinion  of 
the  first  (writing  mediums),  basing  it  on  my  personal  obser- 
vations, and  without  desiring  to  weaken  other  proofs,  if  there 
are  any.  As  to  the  second  (planchette),  I  became  familiar 
with  it  more  especially  by  the  seances  of  Mme.  de  Girardin, 
at  the  home  of  Victor  Hugo  in  the  Isle  of  Jersey.  It  works 
more  independently  than  the  first  method ;  but  it  is  still  only 
a  prolongation,  as  it  were,  of  the  hand  and  the  brain.  The 
third  method  —  table-rapping,  or  typtology ;  I  mean  taps  in 
the  table  —  seems  to  me  still  more  emphatically  an  extension 
of  the  hand  and  brain,  and  some  forty-five  years  ago  I  often 
made  use  of  this  form  of  experiment. 

Eappings  made  on  the  floor  by  one  foot  of  the  table,  as 
letters  are  spelled  out,   have  no  special  value.      The  leasts 
pressure  can  produce  these  see-saw  movements.     The  chief  I 
experimenter  himself  makes  the  responses,  sometimes  with- 
out suspecting  it. 

Several  persons  group  themselves  about  a  table,  place  their 
hands  upon  it,  and  wait  for  something  to  happen.  At  the 
end  of  five,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty  minutes,  the  time  depending 
on  the  psychic  atmosphere  *  and  the  faculties  of  the  experi- 
menters, raps  are  heard  in  the  table,  or  the  sitters  help 
in  the  movements  of  the  table,  which  seems  possessed.  Why 
choose  a  table  ?  Because  it  is  the  only  article  of  furniture 
around  which  folks  usually  sit.  Sometimes  the  table  is  lifted 
on  one  or  more  of  its  feet  and  is  gently  rocked  to  and  fro. 
Sometimes  it  comes  up  as  if  glued  to  the  hands  placed  on  it, 
remaining  suspended  in  the  air  two,  three,  five,  ten,  twenty 

*  The  author  means,  of  course,  by  this  phrase  {milieu  amhiant)  y 
the  totality  of  psycmc  force  present,  the  psychological  atmosphere,  the 
total  mind-energy  radiated  by  the  several  more  or  less  sensitive  or 
mediumistic  members  of  the  company. —  Trans. 


/Ml 

^3^       MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 
Vur^ ^condiQ,     Again,  it  is  nailed  to  the  floor  with  such  force  that 

^  tr   it  seems  to  TTave  double  or  triple  its  usual  weight.     At  other 

^  V^  1  times,  and  usijall^^wi  4ema^d,  ity^^ 

c>»^^/>  *  a  saw,  of  a  hatchet,  ofa  lead-pencil  ^^Titing,  etc.  We 
have  here  material  results  coming  under  direct  observation, 
and  they  prove  irrefragably  the  existence  of  an  unkno\vn 
force. 

This  force  is  a  material  force  in  the  psychic  class.  If 
we  confined  our  attention  to  blind  senseless  movements  of  one 
kind  or  another,  in  relation  only  with  the  volitions  of  the 
experimenters,  and  not  capable  of  being  explained  by  the 
mere  imposition  of  their  hands,  we  might  see  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  new  unknown  force,  explicable  as  a  transforma- 
tion of  nervous  force,  of  organic  electricity ;  and  that  would 
be  much  in  itself.  But  the  raps  made  in  the  table,  or  by  the 
feet  of  it,  are  made  in  reply  to  questions  asked.  Since  we 
know  the  table  is  only  a  piece  of  wood,  when  we  ask  it  ques- 
tions, we  are  really  addressing  some  mental  agent  who  hears 
and  replies.  It  was  in  this  class  of  phenomena  that  modern 
Spiritualism  took  its  rise;  namely,  in  the  United  States,  in 
1848,  when  the  Fox  sisters  heard  sounds  in  their  chamber, — 
raps  in  the  walls  and  in  the  furniture.  Their  father,  after 
several  months  of  vexatious  investigation,  finally  had  recourse 
to  the  traditional  theory  of  ghosts,  and,  addressing  his 
questions  to  the  wall,  demanded  some  kind  of  an  explana- 
tion from  the  invisible  thing  therein.  This  thing  responded 
by  conventional  taps  to  the  questions  asked,  and  declared 
that  it  Avas  the  spirit  of  the  former  proprietor  once  as- 
sassinated in  this  his  very  home.  The  spirit  asked  for 
prayers  and  the  burial  of  its  body.  (From  this  time  on  the 
replies  were  so  arranged  that  one  rap  in  response  to  a  question 
signified  yes,  two  meant  no,  while  three  meant  an  emphatic 
yes.) 

I  hasten  to  remark  at  once  that  the  tapped  replies  prove 


(^i^ 


-.    MY  riRST  EXPEEIME^^TS  35 

nothing,  and  could  have  been  made  unconsciously  by  the  Fox 
sisters  themselves,  whom  we  can  not  consider  to  have  been 
playing  a  little  comedy  since  the  raps  produced  by  them  in 
the  walls  astounded  and  overwhelmed  them  more,  indeed, 
than  they  did  any  one  else.  The  hypothesis  of  jugglery  and 
mystification,  dear  to  certain  critics,  has  not  the  least  appli- 
cation to  this  case,  although  I  admit  that  rappings  and  move-  V 
ments  are  often  produced  as  practical  jokes  by  waggish  per-r 
sons. 

There  is,  ofjimiTse,  an  unseen  cause  that  originates  these 
rappings.     Is  it  w^ithin  us  or  outside  of  us  ?     Is  it  possible      . 
that  we  might  be  capable  of   doubling  our  personality  in   f^^^  '  *y 
some  way  without  knowing  it,  of  acting  by  mental  sugges-       ^ 
tion,  of  answering  our  own  questions  without  suspecting  it, 
of  producing  material  results  without  being  conscious  of  it? 
Or  does  there  exist,  around  and  about  us,  aajjnteliigent  me- 
dium or  atmosphere,  a  kind  of  spiritual  cosmos?    ^.Cfc*,  again, 
is  it  possible  that  we  are  surrounded  by  invisible  non-human 
beings, —  gnomes,  spirits,  and  hobgoblins   (there  may  be  an 
unknown  Avorld  about  us)  ?    Or,  finally,  is  it  possible  that  the 
spirits  of  the-  dead  may  survive,  and  wander  to  and  fro,  and 
hold  communication  with  us  ?     All  these  hypotheses  present 
themselves  to  our  minds,  nor  have  we  the  scientific  absolute 
right  to  reject  any  one  of  them. 

The  lifting  of  a  table,  the  displacement  of  an  object,  may 
be  attributed  to  an  unknown  force  developed  by  our  nervous 
system  or  otherwise.  At  least  these  movements  do  not  prove 
the  existence  of  a  mind  extraneous  to  that  of  the  subject. 
But  when  some  one  is  naming  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  or 
pointing  them  out  on  a  sheet  of  pasteboard,  and  the  table, 
either  by  raps  in  the  wood  or  by  levitations,  puts  together 
an  intelligible  sentence,  we  are  forced  to  attribute  this  in- 
telligent effect  to  an  intelligent  cause.  This  cause  may  be 
the  medium  himself;  and  the  simplest  way  is,  evidently,  to 


36  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

suppose  that  he  liimself  raps  out  the  letters.  But  experi- 
ments can  be  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  he  cannot  possibly 
do  this,  even  unconsciously.  Our  first  duty  is,  in  reality, 
to  make  fraud  impossible. 

Those  who  have  sufficiently  studied  the  subject  know  that 
fraud  does  not  explain  what  they  have  observed.  To  be  sure, 
in  fashionable  Spiritualistic  soirees  people  sometimes  amuse 
themselves.  Especially  when  the  seances  take  place  in  the 
dark,  and  the  alternation  of  the  sexes  IS  provided  for  so  as 
to  "  reinforce  the  fluids,"  it  is  not  altogether  an  unheard  of 
thing  for  the  gentlemen  to  profit  by  the  temptation  to  tem- 
porarily forget  the  object  of  the  meeting  and  break  the  es- 
tablished chain  of  hands  in  order  to  begin  another  on  their 
own  account.  The  ladies  and  the  young  girls  like  these 
changes  in  the  program,  and  scarcely  a  complaint  is  heard. 
On  the  other  hand,  apart  from  fashionable  soirees,  to  which 
everybody  is  invited  for  their  amusement,  the  more  serious 
reunions  are  frequently  no  safer;  for  the  medium,  w^ho  is, 
in  one  way  or  another,  an  interested  person,  is  anxious  to 
give  the  most  he  can  —  and  something  to  boot. 

Upon  the  leaf  of  an  old  note-book  of  mine  which  has  just 
turned  up,  I  classed  Spiritualistic  soirees  in  the  following 
order,  which  is  doubtless  a  slightly  original  one:  — 

1.  Amorous  caresses.  (A  similar  reproach  was  made 
against  the  ancient  Christian  love-feasts  or  agapes.) 

2.  Charlatanry  of  mediums,  abusing  the  credulity  of  the 
eitters. 

3.  Some  serious  inquirers. 

At  tlic  time  of  which  I  was  just  now  speaking  (1861-- 
G3)  I  took  i)art,  as  secretary,  in  experiments  conducted  regu- 
hirly  once  a  week,  in  the  salon  of  a  well-known  medium, — 
Allle.  II not,  of  :Mont-Thabor  Street  Mediumship  was,  in  a 
way,  lier  trade,  and  she  had  more  than  once  been  flagrantly 
detected  in  some  most  remarkable  trickery.     Accordingly,  it 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIMENTS  37 

may  be  imagined  that  she  would  quite  often  give  the  raps 
herself  by  hitting  the  table-legs  with  her  feet.  But  quite 
often  we  also  obtained  noises  of  sawing,  of  planing,  of  driun- 
beating,  and  torrents  of  rain,  which  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible for  her  to  imitate.  Neither  could  the  holding  fast 
of  the  table  to  the  floor  be  the  work  of  fraud.  As  to  the 
levitations  of  the  table,  I  said  awhile  ago  that,  when  one  of  us 
showed  an  inclination  to  resist  with  his  hand  the  upward 
movement,  he  received  an  impression  as  if  the  table  were 
floating  on  a  fluid.  Now  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the  medium 
could  produce  this  result.  Everything  took  place  in  broad 
daylight. 

The  communications  received  at  the  very  many  seances 
(several  hundred)  at  which  I  have  been  present,  both  at  that 
time  and  since,  have  always  shown  me  that  the  results  were 
in  direct  ratio  with  the  cultivation  of  mind  of  the  partici- 
pants. I  naturally  asked  a  great  many  questions  on  as- 
tronomy. The  replies  never  taught  us  anything  new  w^hat- 
ever;  and,  to  be  perfectly  loyal  to  the  truth,  I  must  say 
that  if,  in  these  experiments,  there  are  spirits,  or  beings 
independent  of  us  in  action,  they  know  no  more  than  we  do 
about  the  other  worlds. 

A  distinguished  poet,  P.  F.  Mathieu,  was  usually  present 
at  the  reunions  at  the  Mont-Thabor  salon,  and  hence  we  some- 
times obtained  very  pretty  bits  of  verse,  which  I  am  sure 
he  did  not  himself  consciously  produce;  for,  like  all  of  us, 
he  was  there  to  learn.  M.  Joubert,  vice-president  of  the 
civil  tribunal  of  Carcassonne,  has  published  a  work,  entitled 
Various  Fables  and  Poems,  by  a  Spirit-rapper,  which  bears 
on  its  face  evidence  that  it  is  but  the  reflex  of  his  customary 
thoughts.  We  had  Christian  philosophers  with  us  at  our  re- 
unions. Accordingly,  the  table  dictated  to  us  fine  thoughts 
signed    "  Pascal,''    ^*  Fenelon,''    "  Vincent    de    Paul,"    and 


38  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

"  Sainte  Therese.  One  spirit,  who  signed  himseK  "  Bal- 
thasar  Grimod  de  la  Reyniere/'  dictated  funny  dissertations 
on  the  art  of  cooking.  His  specialty  was  to  make  the  heavy 
table  dance  about  in  all  kinds  of  contortions.  Rabelais  some- 
times appeared,  &till  loving  the  perfumes  of  savory  viands 
as  of  old.  Some  of  the  spirits  took  pleasure  in  making  tours 
de  force  in  cryptology  (secret  writing).  The  following  are 
specimens  of  these  table-rapping  communications.  The  first 
is  from  the  vulgate  version  of  the  Bible,  the  Gospel  of  John 
iii.  8: 

^'  Spiritus  ubi  vult  spirat ;  et  vocem  ejus  audis,  sed  nescis 
unde  veniat  aut  quo  vadat.  Sic  est  omnis  qui  natus  est  ex 
spiritu."  (^'  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh, 
and  whither  it  goeth.  So  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the 
Spirit") 

"  Dear  little  sister,  I  am  here,  and  see  that  you  are  as  good 
as  ever.  You  are  a  medium.  I  will  go  to  you  with  great 
happiness.  Tell  my  mother  her  dear  daughter  loves  her  from 
this  world.*  Louisa.'^ 

Some  one  asked  one  of  the  spirits  if  he  could  indicate  by 
taps  the  words  engraved  inside  of  her  ring.  The  response 
was: 

"  I  love  that  one  should  love  me  as  I  love  when  I  love/' 

A  member  of  the  company  suspected  that  the  table  around 
which  we  were  sitting  might  conceal  a  piece  of  mechanism 
for  producing  the  raps.  Accordingly,  one  of  the  sentences 
was  dictated  by  raps  made  in  the  air. 

Here  is  another  series: 

"  Je  suis  ung  ioyeux  compaignon  qui  vous  esmarveilleray 
avocques  mes  discours,  je  ne  suis  pas  ung  Esperict  mateolo- 
•  This  communication  is  given  in  English  by  tlie  author. —  Trans. 


MY  FIEST  EXPEEIMEKTS  39 

gien,  je  vestiray  non  liripipion  et  je  diray:     Beuvez  I'eaue 
de  la  cave,  poy  plus,  poy  moins,  serez  content. 

"  Alcofkibaz  JSTazieb." 

("I  am  a  jollie  blade  who  will  astonie  yon  by  my  speech. 
I  am  not  a  vaine-babbling  sperit.  I  will  wear  my  graduate^s 
hood  and  sale:  Drinke  ye  water  of  ye  cellar  [wine], —  no 
more,  no  less.     Be  content. 

"Francois  Eabelais.")* 

A  rather  lively  discussion  arose  upon  the  subject  of  this 
unexpected  visit, —  and  of  the  language,  which  some  erudite 
persons  present  thought  not  to  be  pure  Rabelaisian.  Where- 
upon the  table  rapped: 

"  Bons  enf  ants  estes  de  vous  esgousiller  a  ceste  besterie. 
Mieux  vault  que  beuviez  froid  que  parliez  chaud." 

"  Eabelais.'' 

("  Ye're  regular  babies  to  bawle  yourselves  hoarse  over  this 
selynesse.  It  is  bettaire  to  drinke  cauld  than  to  speak 
warme. ) 

"  Liesse  et  Noel !  Monsieur  Satan  est  defim,  et  de  male 
mort.  Bien  marrys  sont  les  moynes,  moynillons,  bigotz  et 
cagotz,  carmes  chaulx  et  dechaulx,  papelards  et  frocards, 
mitrez  et  encapuchonnez :  les  vecy  sans  couraige,  les  Esperictz 
les  ont  destrosnez.  Plus  ne  serez  roustiz  et  eschaubouillez 
ez  marmites  monachales  et  roustissoires  diaboliques ;  foin  de 
ces  billevesees  papales  et  clericquales.  Dieu  est  bon,  iuste  et 
plein  de  miserichorde ;  il  diet  a  ses  petits  enfancts:  aimez- 
vous  les  ungs  les  autres  et  il  pardoint  a  la  repentance.  Le 
grand  dyable  d'enfer  est  mort;  vive  Dieu!  " 

("  Hurrah  for  a  merry  life!  Maister  Satan  is  dead,  dead 
as  a  door-nail.  The  monks  and  the  poor-devil  friars  are 
married, —  bigots  and  fanatics,  Carmelites  shod  and  unshod, 

*  Alcofribaz  Nazier  is  well  known  as  Rabelais'  anagram,  formed 
from  his  own  name.  It  was  the  signature  under  which  he  published 
his  Pantagruel. — Trans. 


40  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  hypocrites  and  the  cowled  fellows,  the  mitres  and  the 
hoods.  There  they  stand  trembling  in  their  tracks;  the 
Spirits  have  dethroned  them.  Gone  are  the  roastings  and 
soup-makings  in  the  Devil's  Dutch  ovens  and  in  monastic 
kettles.  A  plague  of  these  trashy  tales  of  pope  and  priest! 
God  is  good,  just,  and  full  of  pity.  He  says  to  his  little  chil- 
dren, '  Love  one  another ' ;  and  he  pardons  the  repentant. 
The  great  devil  in  hell  is  dead.     Hurrah  for  God !  ") 

Here  is  still  another  series: 

"  Suov  ruop  eretsym  nu  sruojuot  tnores  emem  srueisulp ; 

erdnerpmoc  ed  simrep  erocne  sap  tse  suov  en  li  uq  snoitseuq 

sed  ridnoforppa  ruop  tirpse'l  sap  retnemruot  suov  en.     Lies- 

noc  nob  nu  zevius." 

"  Suov  imrap  enger  en  edrocsid  ed  tirpse'l  siamaj  euq." 
"  Arevele    suov   ueid    te    screrf    sov    imrap    sreinred    sel 

zeyos ;  evele  ares  essiaba's  iuq  iulec  ^  essiaba  ares  evele's  iuq 

iulec." 

These  sentences  must  be  read  backwards,  beginning  at  the 
end.  Some  one  asked,  "  Why  have  you  dictated  thus  ? '' 
The  reply  was: 

"  In  order  to  give  you  new  and  unexpected  proofs." 

Read  backwards,  these  Russian-like  sentences  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Celui  qui  s'eleve  sera  abaisse,  celui  qui  s'abaisse  sera 
eleve;  soyez  les  derniers  paraii  vos  freres  et  Dieu  vous 
elevera." 

*'  Que  jamais  I'esprit  de  discorde  ne  regno  parmi  vous." 

^'  Suivez  un  bon  conseil.  Ne  vous  tourmenter  pas  I'esprit 
pour  approfondir  des  questions  qu'il  ne  vous  est  pas  encore 
permis  de  comprendre;  plusieurs  meme  seront  toujours  un 
mystere  pour  vous." 

("  Whosoever  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased;  and  he  that 
humbh^th  himself  shall  be  exalted!  Be  the  least  among 
your  brethren,  and  God  will  exalt  you." 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIME:N^TS  41 

"  'Never  let  the  spirit  of  discord  reign  among  jou." 
^'  Follow  good   counsel.     Do   not  torment  your  mind  in 
attempting  to  fathom  questions  that  it  is  not  yet  permitted 
you  to  comprehend :  several  of  these  will  always  be  a  mystery 
to  you.") 

Here  is  another  of  a  different  kind : 

"  Acmairsvnoouussevtoeussbaoinmsoentsfbiideenlteosuss. 
^'  Sloeysepzruintissaeinndtieetuesnudrrvaosuessmaairlises." 

I  asked  the  meaning  of  this  bizarre  and  portentous  con- 
glomeration of  letters.     The  reply  was  : 

"  To  conquer  your  doubts,  read  by  skipping  every  other 
letter." 

This  arrangement  using  the  skipped  letters  in  their  turn 
for  the  second  and  fourth  lines  gives  the  four  following 
verses : 

"  Amis,  nous  vous  aimons  bien  tons, 
Car  vous  etes  bons  et  fideles. 
Soyez  unis  en  Dieu :  sur  vous 
L'Esprit-Saint  etendra  ses  ailes." 

("  Friends,  we  love  you  all, 

For  you  are  good  and  faithful. 

Be  united  in  God :  over  you 

The  Holy  Spirit  will  spread  his  wings.") 

This  is  innocent  enough,  surely  and  without  any  great 
poetic  pretensions.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  method 
of  dictating  is  rather  difficult.* 

*  A  piece  of  typtological  dictation  of  the  same  kind  has  been  re- 
cently sent  to  me.     Here  it  is: 

lUTPTUOLOER 

eirfieueb:^ 

ssoagprsti 

Read  successively,  from  top  to  bottom,  one  letter  of  each  line,  begin- 
ning on  the  leftj  and  the  sense  will  appear  as  follows:  "  Je  suis  trop 
fatigue  pour  les  obtenir."     ("I  am  too  tired  to  obtain  them.") 


42  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  TORCES 

Some  one  spoke  of  human  plans.  The  table  dictated  as 
follows :  * 

"  When  the  shining  snn  scatters  the  stars,  know  ye,  O 
mortal  men,  whether  ye  will  see  the  evening  of  that  day? 
And,  when  the  sombre  curtains  of  night  are  let  fall  from  the 
sky,  can  you  tell  whether  you  will  see  the  dawn  of  another 
morn  ?  " 

Another  person  asked,  "  What  is  faith  ?  " 

"  Faith  ?  'Tis  a  blessed  field  that  breeds  a  superb  harvest, 
and  every  laborer  may  therein  reap  and  garner  to  his  heart's 
content,  and  carry  home  his  sheaves." 

Here  are  three  prose  dictations : 

"  Science  is  a  forest  where  some  are  laying  out  roads, 
where  many  lose  their  way,  and  where  all  see  the  bounds 
of  the  forest  recede  as  fast  as  they  go  forward." 

"  God  does  not  illuminate  the  world  with  the  lightning  and 
the  meteors.  He  guides  peacefully  in  their  courses  the  stars 
of  the  night,  which  fill  the  sky  with  their  light.  So  the 
divine  revelations  succeed  one  another  in  order,  reason,  and 
harmony." 

"  Religion  and  Eriendship  are  twin  companions,  who  aid 
us  to  traverse  the  painful  path  of  life." 

I  cannot  forego  the  pleasure  of  inserting  here,  at  the  close 
of  tliis  chapter,  a  fable,  dictated  like  the  others  by  table- 
rappings,  and  sent  to  me  by  M.  Joubert,  vice-president  of  the 
civil  tribunal  of  Carcassonne.f  The  sentiment  of  it  may  be 
queried  by  some;  but  is  not  the  central  principle  applicable 
to  all  epochs  and  to  all  governments:  Do  not  the  ''arri- 
vistes "  X  belong  to  all  times  ? 

•This  nnd  the  next  dictation  are  rhymed  verse  in  the  original 
Frenc'li. —  Trans. 

tin  rhymed  verses  in  the  original. —  Trans. 

t  A  word  of  recent  origin,  meaning  ambitious  or  pretentious  people 
who  want  "to  arrive,"  the  wouldbc's.  The  word  forms  the  title  of  a 
recent  Fn'iicli  novel,  I/Arriviatc,  and  (translated)  of  an  English  one 
called  The  Climber. —  Trans. 


MY  FIEST  EXPERIMEI^TS  '43 

THE  KING  AND  THE  PEASANT 

A  king  who  had  profaned  the  public  liberties,  who  for 
twenty  years  had  slaked  his  thirst  in  the  blood  of  heretics; 
awaiting  the  quiet  peace  of  the  hangman  in  his  declining 
days;  decrepit,  surfeited  with  adulterous  amours;  this  king, 
this  haughty  monster  of  whom  they  had  made  a  great  man, — 
Louis  the  Fourteenth,  in  short,  if  I  must  name  him, —  was 
one  day  airing  under  the  leafy  arches  of  his  vast  gardens  his 
Scarron,  his  infamy  and  his  troubles.  The  noble  band  of 
court  flunkeys  came  along.  Each  one  at  once  lost  at  least 
six  inches  of  his  height.  Pages,  counts,  marquises,  dukes, 
princes,  marshals,  ministers,  bowed  low  before  insulting 
rivals,  the  creatures  of  the  king.  Grave  magistrates  made 
their  deep  reverences,  each  humbler  than  a  suitor  asking  for 
audience.  'Twas  pleasant  to  see  how  the  ribbons,  crosses 
and  decorations  on  their  embroidered  coats  went  ever  back- 
wards. Always  and  always  that  ignoble  bowing  and  scrap- 
ing and  cringing.  I  should  like  to  wake  up  some  morning 
an  emperor,  that  I  might  sting  with  my  whip  the  backbone 
of  a  flatterer.  But  see !  alone,  confronting  the  despot,  yet 
without  abasing  his  head,  forging  along  with  slow  steps  on 
his  o\vn  way,  modest,  clad  in  coarse  homespun  garments, 
comes  one  who  seems  a  peasant,  perhaps  a  philosopher,  and 
passes  by  the  groups  of  insolent  courtiers.  ''  Oh,''  cries  the 
king,  in  great  surprise,  "  why  do  you  alone  confront  me  with- 
out bending  the  knee  ?  "  "  Sire,"  said  the  unknown,  "  must 
I  be  frank  ?  It  is  because  I  alone  here  expect  nothing  from 
you." 

If  we  stop  to  think  how  these  sentences  and  phrases 
and  different  bits  of  literature  were  produced,  letter  by  let- 
ter, rap  by  rap,  following  the  alphabet  as  it  was  read  out,  we 
shall  appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  thing.  The  rappings  are 
made  either  in  the  interior  of  the  wood  of  the  table  (the 
vibrations  of  which  are  perceptible)  or  in  some  other  piece 
of  furniture^  or  even  in  the  air.  The  table,  as  I  have  already 
said,  is  alive,  pregnant  with  a  kind  of  momentary  vitality. 
Melodies  of  well-known  airs,  sounds  of  sawing  and  of  the 


M  MYSTEKIOTJS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

workshop,  and  the  report  of  fusillades  can  be  drawn  from 
it.  Sometimes  it  becomes  so  light  that  it  floats  for  a  mo- 
ment in  the  air,  then  so  heavy  that  two  men  can  scarcely 
lift  it  from  the  floor  or  budge  it  in  any  way.  You  must 
have  a  distinct  picture  in  your  mind  of  all  these  manifesta- 
tions,—  often  puerile,  no  doubt,  sometimes  vulgar  and  gro- 
tesque, yet  striking  in  their  method  of  operation, —  if  you 
would  accurately  understand  the  phenomena,  and  realize  that 
you  are  in  the  presence  of  an  unknown  element  which  jug- 
glery and  prestidigitation  cannot  explain. 

Some  folks  can  move  their  toes  separately  and  crack  the 
joints.  If  we  should  grant  that  the  dictations,  by  combina- 
tions of  letters  (quoted  above),  were  arranged  in  advance, 
learned  by  heart,  and  thus  rapped,  the  matter  would  be  simple 
^nough.  But  this  particular  faculty  is  very  rare,  and  it 
^^^  y,  /does  not  explain  the  noises  in  the  table,  the  vibrations  of 
^^*^^^^yj  which  are  felt  by  the  hands.  Again,  one  could  fancy  the 
"*- "^^"^^^  medium  tapping  the  table-legs  with  his  foot,  and  thus  con- 
structing such  sentences  as  he  pleases.  But  it  would  require 
a  wonderful  memory  in  the  medium  to  enable  him  to  remem- 
ber the  precise  arrangement  of  letters  (for  he  has  no  memo- 
randum before  him),  and,  further,  these  curious  dictations 
have  been  secured  just  the  same  in  select  companies  where 
^j^io  one  would  cheat. 

As  to  the  theory  that  the  spirits  of  eminent  men  are  in 
communication  with  the  experimenters  the  mere  statement 
of  the  hypothesis  shows  its  absurdity.  Imagine  a  table-rap- 
per calling  up  from  the  vasty  deep  the  spirits  of  Paul  or 
Saint  Augustine,  Archimedes  or  jSTeAvton,  Pythagoras  or 
Copernicus,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  or  William  Herschel,  and 
recoiving  thoir  dictations  from  the  interior  of  a  table ! 

We  were  speaking,  a  few  pages  back,  of  the  seance  draw- 
ings and  descriptions  of  Jupiter  made  by  Victorien  Sardou. 
This  is  the  proper  place  to  insert  a  letter  A^Titten  by  him 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIME:^rTS  45 

to  M.  Jules  Claretie,  and  published  by  the  latter  in  Le  Temps 
at  the  date  when  that  learned  Academician  was  putting  on  the 
boards  his  drama  Spiritisme.     The  letter  is  here  appended: 

.  .  .  As  to  Spiritualism,  I  could  better  tell  you  ver- 
bally in  three  words  what  I  think  of  it  than  I  could  write 
here  in  three  pages.  You  are  half  right  and  half  wrong. 
Pardon  my  freedom  of  speech.  There  are  two  things  in 
Spiritualism, —  (1)  curious  facts,  inexplicable  in  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge,  and  yet  authenticated;  and  (2)  the 
folks  who  explain  them. 

The  facts  are  real.  Those  who  explain  them  belong  to 
three  categories:  there  are,  first.  Spiritualists  who  are  im- 
becile, ignorant,  or  mad,  the  chaps  who  call  up  Epaminondas 
and  whom  you  justly  make  fun  of,  or  who  believe  in  the 
intervention  of  the  devil;  those,  in  short,  who  end  in  the 
lunatic  asylum  in  Charenton. 

Secundo,  there  are  the  charlatans,  commencing  with 
D. ;  impostors  of  all  sorts,  prophets,  consulting  mediums, 
such  as  A.  K.,  and  tutti  quanti. 

Finally,  there  are  the  scholars  and  scientists,  who  think 
they  can  explain  everything  by  juggleries,  hallucination,  and 
unconscious  movements,  men  like  Chevreul  and  Faraday, 
who,  while  they  are  right  about  some  of  the  phenomena  de- 
scribed to  them,  and  which  really  are  jugglery  or  hallucma- 
tion,  are  yet  wrong  about  the  whole  series  of  original  facts, 
which  they  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  look  at,  though  they 
are  highly  important.  These  men  are  much  to  blame ;  for, 
by  their  plea-in-bar  against  earnest  investigators  (such  as 
Gasparin,  for  example)  and  by  their  insufficient  explana- 
tions, they  have  left  Spiritualism  to  be  exploited  by  charla- 
tans of  all  kinds,  and  at  the  same  time  authorized  serious 
amateurs  to  no  longer  waste  their  time  over  these  studies. 

Last  of  all,  there  are  observers  like  myself  (there  are  not 
many  of  us)  who  are  incredulous  by  nature,  but  who  have 
been  obliged  to  admit,  in  the  long  run,  that  Spiritualism  con- 
cerns itself  with  facts  which  defy  any  present  scientific  ex- 
plication, but  who  do  not  despair  of  seeing  them  explained 
some  day,  and  who  therefore  apply  themselves  to  the  study 
of  the  facts,  and  are  trying  to  reduce  them  to  some  kind  of 


46  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

classification  which  may  later  prove  to  be  law.  We  of  this 
persuasion  hold  ourselves  aloof  from  every  coterie,  from 
every  clique,  from  all  the  prophets,  and,  satisfied  with  the 
convictions  to  which  we  have  already  attained,  are  content 
to  see  in  Spiritualism  the  dawn  of  a  truth,  as  yet  very  ob- 
scure, which  will  some  day  find  its  Ampere,  as  did  the  mag- 
netic currents,  and  who  grieve  to  see  this  truth  choked  out  of 
existence  by  a  dual  foe, —  excess  of  credulous  ignorance 
which  believes  everything  and  excess  of  incredulous  science 
which  believes  nothing. 

We  find  in  our  conviction  and  our  conscience  the  where- 
withal to  brave  the  petty  martyrdom  of  ridicule  inflicted 
upon  us  for  the  faith  we  profess,  a  faith  exaggerated  and 
caricatured  by  the  mass  of  follies  people  never  fail  to  attrib- 
ute to  us,  nor  do  we  deem  that  the  myth  in  which  they  dress 
us  up  merits  even  the  honor  of  a  refutation. 

Similarly,  I  have  never  had  any  desire  to  prove  to  any- 
body whatever  that  the  influence  of  either  Moliere  or  Beau- 
marchais  cannot  be  detected  in  my  plays.  It  seems  to  me 
that  that  is  more  than  evident. 

Respecting  the  dwellings  of  the  planet  Jupiter,  I  must 
ask  the  good  folks  who  suppose  that  I  am  convinced  of  the 
real  existence  of  these  things  whether  they  are  well  per- 
suaded that  Gulliver  believed  in  "  Lilliput,"  *  Campanella 
in  the  "  City  of  the  Sun,"  and  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his 
"  Utopia." 

What  is  true,  however,  is  that  the  design  of  which  you 
speak  [PI.  III.]  was  made  in  less  than  ten  hours.  As  to  its 
origin,  I  would  not  give  a  penny  to  know  about  that ;  but  the 
fact  of  its  production  is  another  matter 

V.  Saedou. 

Scarcely  a  year  passes  that  mediums  do  not  bring  me  draw- 
ings of  plants  and  animals  in  the  Moon,  in  Mars,  Venus, 
Jupiter,  or  certain  of  the  stars.  These  designs  are  more  or 
less  pretty,  and  more  or  less  curious.     But  there  is  nothing  in 

•  So  in  the  original.  Possibly  M.  Sardou  was  under  the  mistaken 
impression  that  Gulliver  was  a  nom-de-plume  for  Dean  Swift. —  Trans. 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIMENTS  47 

them  that  leads  us  to  admit  their  actual  resemblance  to  real 
things  in  other  worlds.  On  the  contrary,  everything  proves 
that  they  are  the  products  of  imagination,  essentially  terres- 
trial, both  in  look  and  shape,  not  even  tallying  what  we 
know  to  be  the  vital  possibilities  of  those  worlds.  The  de- 
signers of  them  are  the  dupes  of  illusion.  These  plants  and 
animal  are  metamorphoses  (sometimes  elegantly  conceived 
and  drawn)  of  terrestrial  organisms.  Perhaps  the  most  curi- 
ous thing  of  all  is  that  they  have  a  family  resemblance  in  the 
manner  of  their  execution,  and  have  stamped  on  them,  in 
some  way  or  other,  the  mediumistic  hall-mark. 

To  return  to  my  own  experiences.  When  I  took  the  role 
of  writing-medium,  I  generally  produced  astronomical  or 
philosophical  dissertations  signed  "  Galileo."  I  will  quote 
but  one  of  them  as  a  sample.  It  is  taken  from  my  note- 
books of  1862. 

SCIENCE. 

The  human  intellect  holds  in  its  powerful  grasp  the  in- 
finite universe  of  space  and  time ;  it  has  penetrated  the  inac- 
cessible domain  of  the  Past,  sounded  the  mystery  of  the 
unfathomable  heavens,  and  believes  that  it  has  explained  the 
riddle  of  the  universe.  The  objective  world  has  unrolled 
before  the  eyes  of  science  its  splendid  panorama  and  its  mag- 
nificent wealth  of  forms.  The  studies  of  man  have  led  him 
to  a  knowledge  of  truth;  he  has  explored  the  universe,  dis- 
covered the  inexorable  reign  of  law,  and  the  application  of 
the  forces  that  sustain  all  things.  If  it  has  not  been  per- 
mitted to  him  to  see  the  First  Cause  face  to  face,  at  least 
he  has  attained  a  true  mathematical  idea  of  the  series  of 
secondary  causes. 

In  this  latest  century,  above  all,  the  experimental  a  priori 
method,  the  only  really  scientific  one,  has  been  put  into  prac- 
tice in  the  natural  sciences,  and  by  its  aid  man  has  freed 
himself  from  the  prejudices  of  the  old  school  of  thought,  one 
by  one,  and  from  subjective  or  speculative  theories,  and  con- 
fined himself  to  a  careful  and  intelligent  study  of  the  field 
of  observation. 


48  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Yes,  human  science  is  firmly  based  and  pregnant  with 
possibility,  worthy  of  our  homage  for  its  difiicult  and  long- 
proved  past,  worthy  of  our  sympathy  for  its  future,  big  with 
the  promise  of  useful  and  profitable  discoveries.  For  na- 
ture is  henceforth  to  be  a  book  accessible  to  the  bibliographical 
researches  of  the  studious,  a  world  open  to  the  investigations 
of  the  thinker,  a  fertile  region  which  the  human  mind  has 
already  visited^  and  in  which  we  must  needs  advance  boldly, 
holding  in  our  hand  experience  as  our  compass.     .     .     . 

An  old  friend  of  my  terrestrial  life  recently  spoke  to 
me  as  follows.  One  of  our  wanderings  had  brought  us  back 
to  the  Earth_,  and  we  were  making  a  new  moral  study  of  this 
world.  My  companion  remarked  that  man  is  to-day  familiar 
with  the  most  abstract  laws  of  mechanics,  physics,  chemis- 
try, .  .  .  that  the  applications  of  knowledge  to  industry 
are  not  less  remarkable  than  the  deductions  of  pure  science, 
and  that  it  seems  as  if  the  entire  universe,  wisely  studied 
by  man,  was  to  be  his  royal  appanage.  As  we  pursued  our 
journey  beyond  the  bounds  of  this  world,  I  answered  him 
in  the  following  terms: 

"  A  feeble  atom,  lost  to  sight  in  an  imperceptible  point 
of  the  infinite,  man  has  believed  he  could  embrace  in  the 
sweep  of  his  vision  the  whole  expanse  of  the  universe,  where- 
as he  can  scarcely  pass  beyond  the  region  he  inhabits ;  he 
has  thought  he  could  study  the  laws  of  all  nature,  and  his 
investigations  have  scarcely  reached  the  forces  in  action 
about  him;  he  has  thought  he  could  determine  the  grandeur 
of  the  starry  heaven,  and  he  exhausted  his  powers  in  the 
study  of  a  grain  of  dust.  The  field  of  his  researches  is  so 
small  that,  once  lost  to  view,  the  mind  seeks  in  vain  to  re- 
cover it;  the  human  heaven  and  earth  are  so  small  that 
scarcely  has  the  soul  in  its  flight  had  time  to  spread  its  wings 
before  it  has  reached  the  last  regions  accessible  to  the  obser- 
vation of  man ;  for  the  immeasurable  Universe  surrounds  us 
on  all  sides,  unfolding  beyond  the  limits  of  our  heavens  its 
unkno^^^l  riches,  putting  its  inconceivable  forces  into  play, 
and  reaching  forward  into  immensity  in  the  splendor  of  its 
life. 

"  And  the  mere  flesh-worm,  the  miserable  mite,  blind  and 
wingless,  whose  wretched  existence  is  passed  upon  the  leaf 


MY  FIKST  EXPEEIMENTS  49 

where  it  was  bonij  would  presume  (because  forsootli  it  has 
taken  a  few  steps  upon  this  leaf  shaken  in  the  wind)  to  have 
the  right  to  speak  of  the  immense  tree  to  which  it  belongs,  of 
the  forest  of  which  this  tree  forms  a  part,  and  to  sagely 
descant  upon  the  nature  of  the  vegetation  developed  thereon, 
of  the  beings  that  inhabit  it,  of  the  distant  sun  whose  rays 
bring  to  it  movement  and  life  ?  In  very  truth,  man  is 
strangely  presumptuous  to  desire  to  measure  infinite  great- 
ness by  the  foot-rule  of  his  infinite  littleness. 

'^  Therefore  be  this  truth  well  impressed  on  his  mind, — 
if  the  arid  labors  of  past  ages  have  acquired  for  him  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  things,  if  the  progress  of  thought  has 
placed  him  at  the  vestibule  of  knowledge,  still  he  has  not 
yet  spelled  out  more  than  the  first  page  of  the  Book,  and, 
like  a  child,  liable  to  be  deceived  by  every  word,  far  from 
claiming  the  right  to  authoritatively  interpret  the  work,  he 
ought  to  content  himself  with  humbly  studying  it,  page  by 
page,  line  by  line.  Happy,  however,  those  who  are  able  to 
do  this !'' 

Galileo. 

These  were  my  customary  thoughts.  They  are  the 
thoughts  of  a  student  of  nineteen  or  twenty  who  has  acquired 
the  habit  of  thinking.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were 
wholly  the  product  of  my  own  intellect,  and  that  the  illus- 
trious Florentine  astronomer  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  them.  Besides,  this  would  have  been  a  collaboration  to 
the  last  degree  improbable. 

It  has  been  the  same  with  all  the  communications  of  the 
astronomical  class;  they  have  not  led  the  science  forward  a 
single  step.  Nor  has  any  obscure,  mysterious,  or  illusive 
point  in  history  been  cleared  up  by  the  spirits.  We  only 
write  that  which  we  know,  and  even  chance  has  given  us 
nothing.  Still,  certain  unexplained  thought-transferences 
are  to  be  discussed.  But  they  belong  to  the  psychological  or 
human  sphere. 

In  order  to  reply  at  once  to  objections  that  certain  Spirit- 


60  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

ualists  have  sent  to  me  apropos  of  this  result  of  my  ohserva- 
tions,  I  will  take  as  an  example  the  case  of  the  satellites 
of  Uranus,  since  it  is  the  chief  one  always  brought  forward 
as  a  proof  of  scientific  discoveries  imparted  by  spirits.  Eur- 
thermore,  I  received  several  years  ago  from  divers  sources 
a  pressing  invitation  to  examine  an  article  by  General  Dray- 
son,  published  in  the  journal  named  Liglit,  in  1884,  under 
the  title  of  The  Solution  of  Scientific  Problems  hy  Spirits, 
in  which  it  is  asserted  that  the  spirits  made  known  the  true 
orbital  movement  of  the  satellites  of  Uranus.  Pressing  en- 
gagements had  always  hindered  me  from  making  this  exami- 
nation; but  the  case  having  been  recently  promulgated  in 
several  Spiritualistic  works  as  decisive,  and  I  being  so  per- 
sistently importuned  to  discuss  it,  I  believe  it  will  prove  of 
some  use  if  I  now  examine  the  case. 

To  my  great  regret  there  is  an  error  in  their  communica- 
tion, and  the  spirits  have  taught  us  nothing.  Here  is  one 
instance,  wrongly  selected  as  a  demonstration.  The  Russian 
writer  Aksakof  sets  it  forth  in  the  following  terms  (Animism 
and  Spiritualism,  p.  341) : 

The  case  of  which  we  are  about  to  give  an  account  seems  to 
be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  settle  all  objections.  It  was  com- 
municated by  Major-General  A.  W.  Drayson  and  published 
under  the  title  The  Solution  of  Scientific  Problems  hy 
Spirits.    I  append  a  translation : 

"  Having  received  from  M.  Georges  Stock  a  letter  asking 
me  if  I  could  mention,  were  it  only  as  an  instance,  that,  dur- 
ing the  holding  of  a  seance,  a  spirit  had  solved  one  of  those 
scicntilic  problems  which  have  always  embarrassed  scientists, 
1  have  the  honor  to  communicate  to  you  the  following  cir- 
cumstance, which  I  witnessed  with  my  own  eyes : 

*'  In  1781  William  Ilerschel  discovered  the  planet  Uranus 
and  its  satellites.  He  observed  that  these  satellites,  contrary 
to  all  the  other  satellites  of  the  solar  system,  traversed  their 
orbits  from  east  to  west.  Sir  John  Herschel  says  in  his 
Outlines  of  Astronomy: 


MY  EmST  EXPEEIMENTS  51 

"  ^  The  orbits  of  these  satellites  present  peculiarities  alto- 
gether unexpected  and  exceptional,  contrary  to  the  general 
laws  which  govern  the  other  bodies  of  the  solar  system.  The 
planes  of  their  orbits  are  almost  perpendicular  to  the  ecliptic, 
making  an  angle  of  70°  58',*  and  they  travel  with  a  retro- 
grade movement;  that  is  to  say,  their  revolution  about  the 
centre  of  their  planet  takes  place  from  east  to  west  in  place 
of  following  the  inverse  course.' 

"  When  Laplace  broached  his  theory  that  the  sun  and  all 
the  planets  were  formed  at  the  expense  of  a  nebulous  matter, 
these  satellites  were  an  enigma  to  him. 

"  Admiral  Smyth  mentions  in  his  Celestial  Cycle  that  the 
movement  of  these  satellites,  to  the  stupefaction  of  all  as- 
tronomers, is  retrograde,  contrary  to  that  of  all  the  other 
bodies  observed  up  to  that  time. 

"  All  the  astronomical  works  published  before  1860  con- 
tain the  same  reasoning  on  the  subject  of  the  satellites  of 
Uranus.  For  my  part,  I  did  not  find  any  explanation  for 
this  peculiarity:  to  me  it  was  a  mystery  as  much  as  for  the 
writers  whom  I  have  cited. 

"  In  1858  I  had  as  a  guest  in  my  house  a  lady  who  was  a 
medium,  and  we  arranged  daily  seances.  One  evening  she 
said  to  me  that  she  saw  at  my  side  a  spirit  who  claimed  to 
have  been  an  astronomer  during  his  life  on  earth. 

'^  I  asked  this  person  if  he  was  wiser  at  present  than  when 
he  lived  on  the  earth.  ^  Much  w^ser,'  he  said.  I  had  the 
idea  of  asking  this  so-called  spirit  a  question  the  object  of 
which  was  to  test  his  knowledge.  ^  Can  you  tell  me,'  I 
asked  him,  ^  why  the  satellites  of  Uranus  make  their  revo- 
lution from  east  to  w^est  and  not  from  west  to  east  ? '  I 
received  at  once  the  following  reply : 

"  ^  The  satellites  of  Uranus  do  not  move  in  their  orbits 
from  east  to  west :  they  circle  about  their  planet  from  west  to 
east,  in  the  same  way  that  the  moon  moves  around  the  earth. 
The  error  comes  from  the  fact  that  the  south  pole  of  Uranus 
was  turned  toward  the  earth  at  the  moment  of  the  discovery 
of  this  planet.  In  the  same  way  that  the  sun,  seen  from  our 
southern  hemisphere,  seems  to  run  its  daily  course  from  right 

*  This  inclination  is  really  82°,  reckoning  from  the  south,  or  98° 
(90-1-8''),  counting  from  the  north   (see  Fig.  A). 


52  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

to  left  and  not  from  left  to  right,  so  the  satellites  of  Uranus 
were  moving  at  tliat  time  from  left  to  right,  though  this  does 
not  mean  they  were  moving  in  their  orbit  from  east  to  west.' 

"  In  reply  to  another  question  which  I  asked,  my  inter- 
locutor added :  ^  As  long  as  the  south  pole  of  Uranus  was 
turned  toward  the  earth,  in  relation  to  a  terrestrial  observer, 
the  satellites  seemed  to  move  from  left  to  right,  and  it  was 
erroneously  concluded  from  this  that  they  were  going  from 
east  to  west:  this  state  of  things  lasted  for  about  forty-two 
years.  When  the  north  pole  of  Uranus  is  turned  toward  the 
earth,  his  satellites  ran  their  course  from  right  to  left,  but, 
in  either  case,  always  from  the  west  to  the  east.' 

"  I  thereupon  asked  him  how  it  happened  that  the  error 
had  not  been  detected  forty-two  years  after  William  Herschel's 
discovery  of  Uranus.  He  replied,  ^  It  is  because  people 
repeat  that  which  the  authorities  who  have  preceded  them 
have  said.  Dazzled  by  the  results  obtained  by  their  prede- 
cessors, they  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  think.'  " 

Such  is  the  "  revelation "  of  a  spirit  on  the  system  of 
Uranus,  published  by  Drayson  and  presented  by  Aksakof  and 
other  authors  as  an  undeniable  proof  of  the  intervention  of  a 
spirit  in  the  solution  of  this  problem. 

The  following  is  the  result  of  an  impartial  discussion  of 
this  very  interesting  subject.  The  reasoning  of  the  "  spirit  " 
is  false.  The  system  of  Uranus  is  almost  perpendicular  to 
the  plane  of  its  orbit.  It  is  the  direct  opposite  of  that  of  the 
satellites  of  Jupiter,  which  turn  almost  in  the  plane  of  their 
orbit.  The  inclination  of  the  plane  of  the  satellites  to  the 
ecliptic  is  98°,  and  the  planet  ascends  almost  in  the  plane 
of  the  ecliptic.  This  is  a  fundamental  consideration  in  the 
picture  which  we  ought  to  make  to  ourselves  of  the  aspect 
of  this  system  seen  from  the  earth. 

Let  us,  however,  adopt  for  the  method  of  movement  of 
these  satellites  around  their  planet  the  projection  upon  the 
]Anuv  of  the  ecliptic,  as  has  always  been  the  custom.  The 
author  maintains  that,  "  when  the  north  pole  of  Uranus  is 
turned  toward  the  earth,  his  satollitrs  run  their  course  from 


MY  FIEST  EXPERIMEXTS  53 

right  to  left,  that  is  to  say  from  west  to  east  " ;  he  indoi'^es 
the  communication  of  the  spirit  to  the  effect  that  the  as- 
tronomers are  in  error  and  that  the  satellites  of  Uranus 
really  revolve  around  their  planet  from  west  to  east,  in  the 
same  way  that  the  moon  revolves  around  the  earth. 

In  order  to  give  ourselves  an  exact  account  of  the  position 
and  of  the  method  of  the  movements  of  this  system,  let  us 
construct  a  special  geometrical  figure,  clear  and  precise.  Let 
us  rei)resent  upon  a  plane  the  appearance  of  the  orbit  of 
Uranus  and  of  its  satellites  seen  from  the  northern  hemis- 
phere of  the  celestial  sphere  (Fig.  A).  The  part  of  the 
orbit  of  the  satellites  above  the  plane  of  the  orbit  of  Uranus 
has  been  drawn  w^ith  heavy  lines  and  hatching,  the  lower 
part  in  dotted  lines  only. 

It  is  easily  seen  by  the  direction  of  the  arrows  that  the 
revolution  of  the  satellites,  projected  upon  the  plane  of  the 
orbit,  is  entirely  retrograde.  All  dogmatic  affirmations  to 
the  contrary  are  absolutely  erroneous. 

These  satellites  turn  like  the  hands  of  a  watch, —  from 
left  to  right,  looking  at  the  upper  part  of  the  circles. 

The  error  of  General  Drayson's  medium  comes  from  the 
fact  that  she  maintained  that  the  south  pole  of  Uranus  was 
turned  toward  us  at  the  date  of  its  discovery.  Now,  in 
1781,  the  system  of  Uranus  occupied  relatively  to  us  almost 
the  same  situation  as  in  1862,  since  the  time  of  its  revolu- 
tion is  eighty-four  years.  It  is  evident  from  the  figure 
that,  at  that  moment,  the  planet  presented  to  us  the  pole 
most  elevated  above  the  ecliptic ;  that  is,  its  north  pole. 

General  Drayson  allowed  himself  to  be  led  into  error  when 
he  adopted  without  verification  these  paradoxical  premises. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  Uranus  had  presented  to  us  its  south 
pole  in  1781,  the  movement  of  the  satellites  would  have  been 
direct.  But  the  observations  of  the  angle  of  position  of  the 
orbits  at  the  time  of  their  passage  of  the  nodes  gives  us 


64  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

abTindant  evidence  that  it  was  really  the  north  pole  whicK 
was  at  that  moment  turned  toward  the  sun  and  the  earth, — 
a  fact  Avhich  renders  direct  movement  impossible,  retro- 
grade movement  certain. 


Fig.    1. —  The   inclination   of   the   system   of   Uranus.     Aspects   seen 
from  the  earth  at  the  four  extreme  positions. 

For  greater  clearness,  I  have  placed  outside  of  the  orbit, 
in  Fig  1,  the  aspect  of  the  system  of  Uranus  seen  from 
the  earth  at  the  four  principal  epochs  of  the  revolution  of 
this  distant  j)lanet.  It  is  evident  that  the  apparent  method 
of  the  revolution  was  analogous  to  that  of  the  hands  of  a 


MY  FIEST  EXPERIMENTS  55 

watch  in  1781  and  1862,  the  opposite  in  1818  and  1902. 
At  these  dates  the  apparent  orbits  of  the  satellites  are  al- 
most circles,  while  during  the  passage  of  the  nodes,  in  1798, 
1840,  and  1882,  they  are  reduced  to  straight  lines. 

Figure  la  completes  these  data  by  presenting  the  aspect 
of  the  orbits  and  the  method  of  revolution  for  all  the  posi- 
tions of  the  planet,  even  down  to  our  own  epoch. 

I  have  desired  to  completely  elucidate  this  question, 
which  is  a  little  technical.  To  my  great  regret,  the  spirits 
have  taught  us  nothing,  and  this  example,  to  which  so  much 
importance  is  attached,  is  seen  to  be  an  error.* 

Aksakof  cites,  in  this  same  chapter  (p.  343),  the  dis- 
covery of  the  two  satellites  of  Mars,  also  made  by  Drayson 
through  a  medium,  in  1859;  that  is  to  say,  18  years  before 
their  discovery,  in  1877.  This  discovery,  not  having  been 
published  at  the  time,  remains  doubtful.  Furthermore, 
after  Kepler  had  pointed  out  its  probability,  this  subject  of 
the  two  satellites  of  Mars  was  several  times  discussed,  nota- 
bly by  Swift  and  Voltaire  (see  my  Popular  Astronomy,  p. 
501).  This  is  not,  then,  to  be  set  down  as  an  undeniable  in- 
stance of  a  discovery  made  by  the  spirits. 

The  immediately  foregoing  instances  are  facts  actually 
observed  at  Spiritualistic  seances.  I  will  not  treat  them 
under  a  generalization  foreign  to  their  proper  setting. 
They  do  not  prove  that,  in  certain  circumstances,  thinkers, 
poets,  dreamers,  investigators,  may  not  be  inspired  by  in- 
fluences emanating  from  others,  from  loved  ones,  from  de- 

*  I  have  ju&t  found  in  my  library  a  book  which  was  sent  to  me  in 
1888  by  the  author,  Major-General  Drayson,  the  title  of  which  is 
Thirty  Thousand  Years  of  the  Earth's  Past  History,  Read  by  Aid  of  the 
Discovery  of  the  Second  Rotation  of  the  Earth.  This  second  rotation 
would  take  place  about  an  axis  the  pole  of  which  would  be  29°  25'  47" 
from  the  pole  of  the  daily  rotation,  about  270  right  ascension,  and 
would  be  accomplished  in  32,682  years.  The  author  seeks  to  explain 
it  by  the  glacial  periods  and  variations  of  climate.  But  his  work  is 
full  of  confusions  most  strange  and  even  unpardonable  in  a  man 
versed  in  astronomical  studies.  The  truth  is  that  this  General  Drayson 
(who  died  several  years  ago)   was  not  an  astronomer. 


66  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 


1781 

and  18G5 


1664 


1889 

(and   1805) 


1840 


1S62 


1896 

(and  1812) 


1847 


kS52 

(and  1798) 


and   (1818) 


V\<^.  la.— Orbits  of  the  satellites  of  Uranus  as  seen  from  the  earth  at 
dilTe^ent  dates  since  the  time  of  their  discovery   (1781). 


IMY  FIEST  EXPEEIMENTS  57 

parted  friends.  That  is  another  question,  a  topic  quite 
apart  from  experiments  which  we  are  giving  an  account  of 
in  this  book. 

The  same  author,  otherwise  generally  very  judicious,  cites 
several  examples  of  foreign  tongues  spoken  by  mediums. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  them,  and  I  am  asked  not 
to   say  here   anything  but  what   I   am   absolutely   sure   of. 

According  to  my  personal  observations,  these  experiments 
bring  us  constantly  into  the  presence  of  ourselves,  our  own 
minds.      I  could  cite  a  thousand  examples  of  this. 

One  day  I  received  an  "  aerolite  "  discovered  in  a  forest 
in  the  environs  of  Etrepagny  (Eure).  lime.  J.  L.,  who 
kindly  sent  it  to  me,  added  that  she  consulted  a  spirit  about 
its  origin  and  that  he  replied  to  her  that  it  came  from  a  star 
named  Golda.  ISTow  in  the  first  place  there  is  no  star  of  this 
name;  and,  secondly,  this  is  not  an  aerolite  at  all,  but  a 
piece  of  slag  from  an  old  forge.  (See  Section  6(j'2  of  my 
Inquiry  of  1899.  The  first  of  these  sections,  relating  to 
telepathy,  have  been  published  in  my  work  The  Unknown.) 

A  lady  reader  of  mine  wrote  me  from  Montpellier : 

Your  conclusions  would  perhaps  diminish  the  prestige  of 
Spiritualism  in  the  eyes  of  certain  persons.  But,  as  prestige 
may  produce  superstition,  it  is  well  to  clear  up  matters. 
For  my  part,  that  which  you  have  observed  agrees  with  what 
I  have  myself  observed.  This  is  the  method  which  I  have 
employed,  aided  by  a  friend : 

I  took  a  book  and,  opening  it,  retained  in  my  mind  the 
number  of  the  right-hand  page.  Suppose  it  was  132.  I 
said  to  the  table,  which  had  been  put  in  movement  by  the 
little  manoeuvre  ordinarily  used,  '^  Does  a  spirit  desire 
to  communicate  ?  " 

Eeply— ^^Yes." 

Question  — -^^  Can  you  see  the  book  which  I  have  just  been 
looking  at  ?  " 

Keply  — "  Yes." 


58  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

^'  How  many  numbers  are  there  on  the  page  that  I  have 
been  looking  at  ?  " 

''  Three." 

"  Indicate  the  number  of  hundreds." 

"  One." 

"  Indicate  the  vakie  of  the  tens." 

"  Three." 

"  Indicate  the  value  of  the  units." 

''  Two." 

The  amounts  indicated  in  these  statements  are  of  course 
132.     It  was  enchanting. 

Then,  taking  the  closed  book  and,  without  opening  it, 
sliding  the  paper-knife  between  the  pages,  I  resumed  the 
conversation,  and  the  result  with  this  last  method  was  always 
inexact. 

I  frequently  repeated  this  little  experience  (curious  at 
any  rate)  ;  and,  every  time,  I  had  exact  replies  when  I  knew 
them,  inexact  when  I  was  ignorant  of  them.  (Section  657 
of  my  Inquiry.) 

These  examples  might  be  multiplied  ad  infinitum. 
Everything  leads  us  to  think  that  it  is  we  who  are  the 
actors  in  these  experiments.  But  it  is  not  so  simple  as  one 
might  suppose,  and  there  is  something  else  in  it  as  well  as 
ourselves.     Certain  unexplained  things  take  place. 

In  his  remarkable  work,  Intelligence,  Taine  explains 
Spiritualistic  communications  by  a  sort  of  unconscious  dupli- 
cation of  our  mind,  as  I  said  above. 

Tlie  more  singular  a  fact  is  [he  writes  *]  the  more  in- 
structive it  is.  In  this  respect.  Spiritualistic  manifestations 
themselves  point  the  way  to  discoveries  by  showing  us  the 
coexistence  at  the  same  moment  in  the  same  individual  of 
two  thoughts,  two  wills,  two  distinct  actions,  the  one  con- 
scious, tlic  other  unconscious;  the  latter  he  attributes  to  in- 
visible beings.  The  brain  is,  then,  a  theatre  on  the  stage  of 
which  several  pieces  are  being  played  at  once,  upon  several 

*  hitclligcncc,  Vol.  I.,  preface,  p.  16,  edition  of  1897.  The  first  edi- 
tion was  published  in  1868. 


MY  FIRST  EXPEKIMENTS  59 

planes,  of  which  only  one  is  not  subliminal.  I^sTothing  is 
more  worthy  of  study  than  this  plurality  of  the  me,  I  have 
seen  a  person  who,  while  speaking  or  singing,  writes,  without 
regard  to  the  paper,  consecutive  sentences  and  even  entire 
pages,  without  any  knowledge  of  what  she  is  writing.  In 
my  eyes  her  sincerity  is  perfect.  Xow  she  declares  that  at 
the  end  of  a  page  she  has  no  idea  of  what  she  has  written  on 
the  paper.  When  she  reads  it,  she  is  astonished,  sometimes 
alarmed.  The  handwriting  is  different  from  her  ordinary- 
handwriting.  The  movement  of  the  fingers  and  of  the  pencil 
is  stiff  and  seems  automatic.  The  writing  always  ends  with 
a  signature,  that  of  a  deceased  person,  and  bears  the  mark 
of  intimate  thoughts,  of  a  secret  and  inner  reserve  of  ideas 
which  the  author  would  not  like  to  divulge.  Certainly  there 
is  proof  here  of  a  doubling  of  the  me,  the  coexistence  of  two 
parallel  and  independent  trains  of  thought,  of  two  centres  of 
action,  or,  if  you  wish,  of  two  moral  persons  existing  in  the 
same  brain,  each  one  doing  his  work,  and  each  one  a  different 
work,  the  one  upon  the  stage  and  the  other  behind  the  scenes, 
the  second  as  complete  as  the  first,  since,  alone  and  unwit- 
ting of  the  other,  it  constnicts  consecutive  ideas  and  fashions 
connected  sentences  in  which  the  other  has  no  part. 

This  hypothesis  is  admissible,  in  the  light  of  numerous 
observations  of  double  consciousness.* 

It  is  applicable  to  a  great  number  of  cases,  but  not  in  all. 
It  explains  automatic  writing.  But,  as  it  stands,  it  is 
necessary  to  stretch  it  considerably  to  make  it  explain  the  rap- 
pings  (for  who  raps?),  and  it  does  not  explain  at  all  the 
levitations  of  the  table,  nor  the  displacement  of  objects  of 
which  I  have  spoken  in  the  first  chapter,  and  I  do  not  very 
well  see  how  it  can  even  explain  phrases  rapped  out  back- 
wards or  by  the  strange  combinations  described  above.     This 

*  All  those  who  occupy  themselves  with  these  questions  are  ac- 
quainted, among  other  cases,  with  that  of  Felida  (studied  by  Dr. 
Azam ) .  In  the  story  of  this  young  girl  she  is  shown  as  endowed  with 
two  distinct  personalities  to  such  an  extent  that,  in  the  second  state, 
she  becomes  amorous  .  .  .  and  enceinte,  without  knowing  anything 
about  it  in  her  normal  condition.  These  states  of  double  personalities 
have  been  methodically  observed  for  thirty  years. 


60  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

hypothesis  is  admitted  and  developed  in  a  more  unqualified 
way  by  Dr.  Pierre  Janet  in  his  work  Psychological  Autom- 
atism. This  author  is  one  of  those  who  have  created  a 
narrow  circle  of  observation  and  study,  and  who  not  only 
never  emerge  from  it,  but  imagine  that  they  have  got  the 
whole  universe  in  their  circle.  In  going  over  this  kind  of 
reasoning,  one  thinks  involuntarily  of  that  old  quarrel  of 
the  two  round  eyes  who  saw  everything  round  and  of  the 
two  square  eyes  who  saw  everything  square,  and  of  the 
history  of  the  Big-endians  and  of  the  Little-endians  of  Gul- 
liver's Travels.  An  hypothesis  is  worthy  of  attention  when 
it  explains  something.  Its  value  does  not  increase  by  the 
attempt  to  generalize  it  and  make  it  explain  everything: 
this  is  to  overpass  all  reasonable  limits. 

We  may  admit  that  the  sub-conscious  acts  of  an  abnormal 
personality,  temporarily  grafted  upon  our  normal  person- 
ality, explain  the  gTcater  part  of  mediumistic  writing  com- 
munications. We  can  see  in  these  also  the  evident  effects 
of  auto-suggestion.  But  these  psycho-physiological  hypothe- 
ses do  not  explain  all  observations.     There  is  something  else. 

We  all  have  a  tendency  to  want  to  explain  everything  by 
the  actual  state  of  our  knowledge.  In  the  face  of  certain 
circumstances,  we  say  to-day :  "It  is  suggestion,  it  is 
hypnotism,  it  is  this,  it  is  that."  Half  a  century  ago  we 
would  not  have  talked  in  this  way,  these  theories  not  having 
yet  been  invented.  People  will  no  longer  talk  in  the  same 
way  lialf  a  century,  a  centur}^,  hence,  for  new  words  will 
have  been  invented.  But  let  us  not  be  put  off  with  words; 
let  us  not  be  in  such  a  hurry. 

We  must  know  how  to  explain  in  what  way  our  thoughts 
—  conscious,  unconscious,  sub-conscious  —  can  strike  blows 
in  a  table,  move  it,  lift  it.  As  this  question  is  rather  em- 
barrassing. Dr.  Pierre  Janet  treats  it  as  "  secondary  person- 
ality," and  is  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  movements  of 


\ 


MY  riKST  EXPERIME:NTS  61 

the  toeSj  to  the  snapping  of  the  muscles  of  the  fibular  tendon, 
to  ventriloquism  and  the  deceptions  of  unconscious  accom- 
plices.*    This  is  not  a  sufficient  explanation. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  do  not  understand  how  our  thought, 
or  that  of  another,  can  cause  raps  in  a  table,  by  which  sen- 
tences are  formed.  But  we  are  obliged  to  admit  it.  Let 
us  call  it,  if  you  please,  "  telekinetsis  " ;  but  does  that  get  us 
any  farther  along  ? 

There  has  been  talk  for  some  years  about  unconscious 
facts,  about  sub-consciousness,  subliminal  consciousness,  etc. 
I  fear  that  in  these  things  also  we  are  putting  ourselves  o5 
with  words  which  do  not  explain  things  very  much. 

I  intend  some  day,  if  the  time  is  given  me,  to  write  a 
special  book  on  Spiritualism,  studied  from  the  theoretic 
and  doctrinal  point  of  view,  which  will  form  a  second  volume 
of  my  work  The  Unknown  and  Psychic  Problems,  and  which 
has  been  in  preparation  since  the  publication  of  that  w^ork 
in  1899.  Mediumistic  communications,  dictations  received 
(notably  by  Victor  Hugo,  Mme.  de  Girardin,  Eugene  ^us, 
and  the  Phalansterians),  will  be  the  subject  of  special  chap- 
ters in  this  volume, —  as  well  as  the  problem,  otherwise  im- 
portant, of  the  plurality  of  existences. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  enlarge  in  this  place  upon  the 
aspects  of  the  general  question.  That  which  I  restrict  my- 
self to  establishing  in  this  book  is  that  there  are  in  us, 
about  us,  unknoAvn  forces  capable  of  putting  matter  in 
motion,  just  as  our  will  does.  I  ought,  therefore,  to  limit 
myself  to  material  phenomena.  The  range  of  that  class  of 
investigations  is  already  immense,  and  the  "  communica- 
tions "  of  which  I  have  just  spoken  are  really  outside  the 
limits  of  this  range.  But,  as  this  subject  and  that  of  psycho- 
logical experiments  are  continually  overlapping,  it  was 
necessary  to  give  a  summary  of  it  in  this  place.     Let  us 

*  Psychological  Automatism,  p.  401-402. 


62  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

return  for  the  present  to  the  material  phenomena  produced 
by  mediums  and  to  that  which  I  have  myself  ascertained  in 
my  experiences  with  Eusapia  Paladino,  who  unites  them 
nearly  all  in  her  own  personality  and  experiences. 


CHAPTER  III 

MY   EXPERIMENTS   WITH   EUSAPIA   PALADINO. 

In  the  earlier  pages  of  this  volume  some  of  my  later  ex- 
periments with  the  Neapolitan  medium,  Eusapia  Paladino, 
have  been  described.  We  shall  now  revert  to  the  earlier 
ones. 

My  first  experimental  seance  with  this  remarkable  medium 
took  place  on  the  27th  of  July,  1897.  In  response  to  the 
invitation  of  an  excellent  and  honorable  family, —  that  of 
Blech, —  the  name  of  which  has  for  a  long  time  been  hap- 
pily associated  with  modern  researches  in  theosophy,  occult- 
ism, and  psychological  studies,  I  betook  myself  to  Montfort- 
I'Amaury,  to  make  the  personal  acquaintance  of  this 
medium,  whose  case  had  already  been  studied  in  several 
particulars  by  MM.  Lombroso,  Charles  Eichet,  Ochorowicz, 
Aksakof,  Schiaparelli,  ]\[yers.  Lodge,  A.  De  Hochas,  Dariex, 
J.  Maxwell,  Sabatier,  De  Watteville,  and  a  great  number 
of  other  scholars  and  scientists  of  high  standing.  Mme. 
Paladino's  gifts  had  even  been  made  the  subject  of  a  work 
by  Count  de  Rochas  upon  The  Externalization  of  Motivity, 
as  well  as  of  innumerable  articles  in  the  special  reviews. 

The  impression  that  results  from  the  reading  of  all  the 
official  reports  is  not  altogether  satisfactory,  and  besides 
leaves  us  with  our  curiosity  entirely  ungratified.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  can  say,  as  I  have  already  had  occasion  to 
remark,  that,  during  the  last  forty  years,  almost  all  the 
celebrated  mediums  have  been  present  at  one  time  or  an- 
other in  my  salon  in  the  avenue  I'Observatoire  in  Paris,  and 

63 


64:  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

that  I  have  detected  them  nearly  all  in  trickery.  ]^ot  that 
they  always  deceive:  those  who  affirm  this  are  wrong.  But, 
consciously  or  imconsciously,  they  bring  with  them  an  ele- 
ment of  trouble  against  which  one  is  obliged  to  be  con- 
stantly on  guard,  and  which  places  the  experimenter  in 
conditions  diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  scientific  ob- 
servation. 

Apropos  of  Eusapia  I  had  received  from  my  illustrious 
colleague,  M.  Schiaparelli,  director  of  the  observatory  at 
Milan,  to  whom  science  is  indebted  for  so  many  important 
discoveries,  a  long  letter  from  which  I  will  quote  a  few 
passages : 

During  the  autumn  of  1892  I  was  invited  by  M.  Aksakof 
to  be  present  at  a  certain  number  of  Sj)iritualistic  seances 
held  under  his  direction  and  care,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting 
the  medium  Eusapia  Paladino,  of  jSTaples.  I  saw  a  number 
of  very  surprising  things,  a  part  of  which,  to  tell  the  truth, 
could  be  explained  by  very  ordinary  means.  But  there  are 
others  the  production  of  which  I  should  not  know  how  to 
explain  by  the  known  principles  of  natural  philosophy.  I 
add,  without  any  hesitation,  that,  if  it  had  been  possible 
to  entirely  exclude  all  suspicion  of  deceit,  one  w^ould  have 
had  to  recognize  in  these  facts  the  beginning  of  a  new  sci- 
ence pregnant  with  consequences  of  the  highest  importance. 
But  it  must  be  admitted  that  these  experiments  have  been 
made  in  a  manner  little  calculated  to  convince  impartial 
judges  of  their  sincerity.  Conditions  were  always  imposed 
that  hindered  the  right  comprehension  of  what  was  really 
taking  place.  When  we  proposed  modifications  in  the  pro- 
gram suited  to  give  to  the  experiments  the  stamp  of  clear- 
ness and  to  furnish  evidence  that  was  lacking,  the  medium 
invariably  declared  that,  if  we  did  so,  the  success  of  the 
seance  would  thereby  be  made  impossible.  In  fine,  we  did 
not  experiment  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word :  we  were  obliged 
to  be  content  with  observing  that  which  occurred  under  the 
unfavorable  circumstances  imposed  by  the  medium.  Even 
when  mere  observ^ation  was  pushed  a  little  too  far,  the  phe- 


MY  EXPERIME:N'TS  with  EUSAPIA  65 

nomena  were  no  longer  produced  or  lost  their  intensity  and 
their  marvellous  nature.  Xothing  is  more  offensive  than 
these  games  of  hide-and-seek  to  which  w^e  are  obliged  to 
submit. 

All  that  kind  of  thing  excites  distrust.  Having  passed 
all  my  life  in  the  study  of  nature,  which  is  always  sincere 
in  its  manifestations  and  logical  in  its  processes,  it  is  re- 
pugnant to  me  to  turn  my  thoughts  to  the  investigation  of  a 
class  of  truths,  which  it  seems  as  if  a  malevolent  and  disloyal 
power  was  hiding  from  us  with  an  obstinacy  the  motive  of 
which  we  cannot  comprehend.  In  such  researches  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  employ  the  ordinary  methods  of  natural  philoso- 
phy, which  are  infallible,  but  very  limited  in  their  action. 
We  must  have  recourse  to  that  other  critical  method,  more 
subject  to  error,  but  more  audacious  and  more  powerful,  of 
which  police  officers  and  examining  magistrates  make  use 
when  they  are  trying  to  bring  out  a  truth  in  the  midst  of 
disagreeing  witnccccs,  a  part  at  least  of  whom  have  an  inter- 
est in  hiding  that  truth. 

In  accordance  with  these  reflections,  I  cannot  say  that  I 
am  convinced  of  the  reality  of  the  things  which  are  comprised 
under  the  ill-chosen  name  of  Spiritualism.  But  neither  do 
I  believe  in  our  right  to  deny  everything;  for,  in  order  to 
have  a  good  basis  for  denial,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  suspect 
fraud,  it  is  necessary  to  prove  it.  These  experiments,  which 
I  have  found  very  unsatisfactory,  other  experimenters  of 
great  confidence  and  of  established  reputation  have  been  able 
to  make  in  more  favorable  circumstances.  I  have  not  enough 
presumption  to  oppose  a  dogmatic  and  unwarranted  denial 
to  proofs  in  which  scientists  of  great  critical  ability,  such 
as  MM.  Crookes,  Wallace,  Richet,  Oliver  Lodge,  have  found 
a  solid  basis  of  fact  and  one  worthy  their  examination,  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  have  given  to  it  years  of  study. 
And  we  should  deceive  ourselves  if  we  believed  that  men 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Spiritualism  are  all  fanatics.  Dur- 
ing the  experiments  of  1892  I  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing 
some  of  these  men.  I  was  obliged  to  admire  their  sincere  de- 
sire to  know  the  truth;  and  I  found,  in  the  case  of  several 
of  them,  philosophic  ideas  very  sensible  and  very  profound, 
joined  to  a  moral  character  altogether  worthy  of  esteem. 


66  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

That  is  the  reason  why  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  declare 
that  Spiritualism  is  a  ridiculous  absurdity.  I  ought,  then,  to 
abstain  from  pronouncing  any  opinion  whatever :  my  mental 
state  on  this  subject  may  be  defined  by  the  word  ''  agnos- 
ticism." 

I  have  read  with  much  attention  all  that  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Zollner  has  written  on  this  subject.  His  explanation 
has  a  purely  material  basis, —  that  is  to  say,  it  is  the  hy- 
pothesis of  the  objective  existence  of  a  fourth  dimension  of 
space,  an  existence  which  cannot  be  comprised  within  the 
scope  of  our  intuition,  but  the  possibility  of  which  cannot  be 
denied  on  that  ground  alone.  Once  grant  the  reality  of  the 
experiments  which  he  describes,  and  it  is  evident  that  his 
theory  of  these  things  is  the  most  ingenious  and  probable 
that  can  be  imagined.  xVccording  to  this  theory,  mediumistic 
phenomena  w'ould  lose  their  mystic  or  mystifying  character 
and  would  pass  into  the  domain  of  ordinary  physics  and  of 
physiology.  They  would  lead  to  a  very  considerable  exten- 
sion of  the  sciences,  an  extension  such  that  their  author  would 
deserve  to  be  placed  side  by  side  with  Galileo  and  Xewton. 
Unfortunately,  these  experiences  of  Zollner  were  made  with 
a  medium  of  poor  reputation.  It  is  not  only  the  sceptics 
who  doubt  the  good  faith  of  M.  Slade :  it  is  the  Spiritualists 
themselves.  M.  Aksakof,  whose  authority  is  very  great  in 
similar  matters,  told  me  himself  that  he  had  detected  him 
in  trickery.  You  see  by  this  that  these  theories  of  Zollner 
lose  any  support  they  might  have  derived  from  the  exact 
demonstration  of  experiment,  at  the  same  time  that  they  re- 
main very  beautiful,  veiy  ingenious,  and  quite  possible. 

Yes,  quite  possible  in  spite  of  everything;  in  spite  of  the 
lack  of  success  that  I  had  when  I  tried  to  reproduce  them 
with  Eusapia.  On  the  day  when  we  shall  be  enabled  to 
make,  with  absolute  sincerity,  a  single  one  of  these  experi- 
ments, the  matter  will  have  made  great  progress;  from  the 
hands  of  charlatans  it  will  have  passed  into  those  of  physi- 
cists and  physiologists. 

Such  is  the  connuunication  made  to  me  by  M.  Schiapa- 
rclli.  I  found  his  reasoning  to  be  without  defect,  and  it 
wus  in  a  state  of  mind  entirely  analogous  to  his  that  I  ar- 


MY  EXPERTME:N'TS  with  EUSAPIA         67 

rived  at  Monfort-rAmaiiry  (with  all  the  more  interest  be- 
cause Slade  was  one  of  the  mediums  of  whom  I  was  just  now 
speaking). 

Eusapia  Paladino  was  introduced  to  me.  She  is  a  woman 
of  very  ordinary  appearance,  a  brunette,  her  figure  a  little 
under  the  medium  height.  She  w^as  forty-three  years  old,  not 
at  all  neurotic,  rather  stout.  She  was  born  on  January  21, 
1854,  in  a  village  of  La  Pouille;  her  mother  died  while  giv- 
ing birth  to  the  child;  her  father  was  assassinated  eight 
years  afterward,  in  1862,  by  brigands  of  southern  Italy. 
Eusapia  Paladino  is  her  maiden  name.  She  was  married 
at  !N"aples  to  a  merchant  of  modest  means  named  Raphael 
Delgaiz,  a  citizen  of  !N'aples.  She  manages  the  petty  busi- 
ness of  the  shop,  is  illiterate,  does  not  know  how  to  either 
read  or  write,  understands  only  a  little  Erench.  I  con- 
versed with  her,  and  soon  perceived  that  she  has  no  theories 
and  does  not  burden  herself  by  trying  to  explain  the  phe- 
nomena produced  by  her. 

The  salon  in  which  we  are  going  to  conduct  our  experi- 
ments is  a  room  on  the  ground  floor,  rectangular,  measuring 
twenty  feet  in  length  by  nineteen  in  breadth ;  there  are  four 
windows,  an  outside  entrance  door  and  another  in  the  vesti- 
bule. 

Before  the  sitting,  I  make  sure  that  the  large  doors  and 
windows  are  closely  shut  by  window-blinds  with  hooks  and 
by  wooden  blinds  on  the  inside.  The  door  of  the  vestibule 
is  simply  locked  with  a  key. 

In  an  angle  of  the  salon,  at  the  left  of  the  large  entrance 
door,  two  curtains  of  a  light  color  have  been  stretched  on 
a  rod,  joining  in  the  middle  and  forming  thus  a  little  cabinet. 
In  this  cabinet  there  is  a  sofa,  and  leaning  against  this  a 
guitar;  on  one  side  is  a  chair,  on  which  have  been  placed 
a  music-box  and  a  bell.  In  the  recess  of  the  window  which 
is  included  in  the  cabinet  there  is  a  music-rack,  upon  which 


68  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOHCES 

has  been  placed  a  plate  containing  a  well-smoothed  cake  of 
glazier's  putty,  and  under  which,  on  the  floor,  is  a  huge  tray 
containing  a  large  smoothed  cake  of  the  same.  We  have 
prepared  these  plaques  of  putty  because  the  annals  of  Spir- 
itualism have  often  shown  the  imprint  of  hands  and  of 
heads  produced  by  the  unknown  beings  whom  it  is  our  busi- 
ness in  this  work  to  investigate.  The  large  tray  weighs 
about  nine  pounds. 

Why  this  dark  cabinet  ?  The  medium  declares  it  is  neces- 
sary to  the  production  of  the  phenomena  "  that  relate  to  the 
condensation  of  fluids." 

I  should  prefer  that  there  should  be  nothing  of  the  kind. 
But  the  conditions  must  be  accepted,  though  we  must  have 
an  exact  understanding  about  them.  Behind  the  curtain 
the  stillness  of  the  aerial  waves  is  at  its  maximum,  the 
light  at  its  minimum.  It  is  curious,  strange,  infinitely  re- 
grettable that  light  prohibits  certain  effects.  Undoubtedly, 
it  would  not  be  either  philosophic  or  scientific  to  oppose  this 
condition.  It  is  possible  that  the  radiations,  the  forces, 
which  act  may  be  the  rays  of  the  invisible  end  of  the  spectrum, 
I  have  already  had  occasion  to  remark,  in  the  first  chapter, 
that  he  who  would  seek  to  make  photographs  without  a  dark 
chamber  would  cloud  over  his  plate  and  obtain  nothing. 
The  man  who  would  deny  the  existence  of  electricity  be- 
cause he  had  been  unable  to  obtain  a  spark  in  a  damp  atmos- 
phere would  be  in  error.  He  who  would  not  believe  in  the 
existence  of  stars  because  we  only  see  them  at  night  would 
not  be  very  wise.  Modern  progress  in  natural  philosophy 
has  taught  us  that  the  radiations  that  impinge  on  the  retina 
represent  only  the  smallest  fraction  of  tlie  totality.  We 
can  then  admit  the  existence  of  forces  which  do  not  act  in 
the  full  light  of  day.  But,  in  accepting  these  conditions, 
the  essential  point  is  not  to  be  their  dupe. 

Hence,  before  the  seance,  I  examined  carefully  the  nar- 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         69 

row  corner  of  the  room  before  whicli  the  curtain  was 
stretched,  and  I  found  nothing  except  the  objects  mentioned 
above.  Xowhere  in  the  room  was  there  any  sign  whatever 
of  concealed  mechanism,  no  electric  wires  or  batteries  or  any- 
thing of  the  kind,  either  on  the  floor  or  in  the  walls.  More- 
over, the  perfect  sincerity  of  M.  and  Mme.  Blech  is  beyond 
all  suspicion. 

Before  the  seance,  Eusapia  was  undressed  and  dressed 
before  Mme.  Zelma  Blech.     Xothing  suspicious  was  found. 

The  sitting  was  begim  in  full  light,  and  I  constantly  laid 
stress  upon  obtaining  the  largest  number  of  phenomena  we 
could  in  the  full  light  of  day.  It  was  only  gradually,  ac- 
cording as  the  "  spirit "  begged  for  it,  that  the  light  was 
turned  down.  But  I  obtained  the  concession  that  the  dark- 
ness should  never  be  absolute.  At  the  last  limit,  when  the 
light  had  to  be  entirely  extinguished,  it  was  replaced  by  one 
of  the  red  lanterns  used  by  photographers. 

The  medium  sits  before  the  curtain,  turning  her  back 
to  it.  A  table  is  placed  before  her, —  a  kitchen  table,  made 
of  spruce,  weighing  about  fifteen  pounds.  I  examined  this 
table  and  found  nothing  in  it  suspicious.  It  could  be  moved 
about  in  every  direction. 

I  sit  at  first  on  the  left  of  Eusapia,  then  at  her  right 
side.  I  make  sure  as  far  as  possible  of  her  hands,  her  legs, 
and  her  feet,  by  personal  control.  Thus,  for  example,  to 
begin  with,  in  order  to  be  sure  that  she  should  not  lift  the 
table  either  by  her  hands  or  her  legs,  or  her  feet,  I  take 
her  left  hand  in  my  left  hand,  I  place  my  right  open  hand 
upon  her  knees,  and  I  place  my  right  foot  upon  her  left 
foot.  Facing  me,  M.  Guillaume  de  Eontenay,  no  more  dis- 
posed than  I  to  be  duped,  takes  charge  of  her  right  hand  and 
her  right  foot. 

There  is  full  light, — a  big  kerosene  lamp  with  a  wide 
burner  and  a  light  yellow  shade,  besides  two  lighted  candles. 


70  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

At  the  end  of  three  minutes  the  table  begins  to  move, 
balancing  itself,  and  rising  sometimes  to  the  right,  some- 
times to  the  left.  A  minute  afterwards  it  is  lifted  entirely 
from  the  floor,  to  a  height  of  about  nine  inches,  and  remains 
there  two  seconds. 

In  a  second  trial,  I  take  the  two  hands  of  Eusapia  in 
mine.  A  notable  levitation  is  produced,  nearly  under  the 
same  conditions. 

We  repeat  the  same  experiments  thrice,  in  such  a  way  that 
five  levitations  of  the  table  take  place  in  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  and  for  several  seconds  the  four  feet  are  completely 
lifted  from  the  floor,  to  the  height  of  about  nine  inches. 
During  one  of  the  levitations  the  experimenters  did  not 
touch  the  table  at  all,  but  formed  the  chain  above  it  and  in 
the  air;  and  Eusapia  acted  in  the  same  way. 

So  then  it  seems  that  an  object  can  be  lifted,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  law  of  gravity,  without  the  contact  of  the  hands 
which  have  just  been  acting  upon  it  (Proof  already  given 
above,  pp.  5-8,  16.) 

A  round  centre  table  placed  at  my  right  comes  forward 
without  contact  towards  the  table,  always  in  full  light,  be  it 
understood,  as  if  it  would  like  to  climb  up  on  it,  and 
falls  do^vn.  Nobody  has  moved  aside  or  approached  the 
curtain,  and  no  explanation  of  this  movement  can  be  given. 
The  medium  has  not  yet  entered  into  a  trance  and  continues 
to  take  part  in  the  conversation. 

Five  raps  in  the  table  indicate,  according  to  a  conven- 
tion arranged  by  the  medium,  that  the  unknown  cause  asks 
for  less  light.  This  is  always  annoying :  I  have  already  said 
what  I  think  of  this.  The  candles  are  blown  out,  the  lamp 
turned  down,  but  the  light  is  strong  enough  for  us  to  see 
very  distinctly  everything  that  takes  place  in  the  salon. 
The  round  table,  which  I  had  lifted  and  set  aside,  ap- 
proaches the  table  and  tries  several  times  to  climb  up  on  it. 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         71 

I  lean  upon  it  in  order  to  keep  it  down,  but  I  experience  an 
elastic  resistance  and  am  unable  to  do  so.  The  free  edge  of 
the  round  table  places  itself  on  tbe  edge  of  the  rectangular 
table,  but,  hindered  by  its  triangular  foot,  it  does  not  suc- 
ceed in  clearing  itself  sufficiently  to  climb  upon  it.  Since 
I  am  holding  the  medium,  I  ascertain  that  she  makes  no 
effort  of  the  kind  that  would  be  needed  for  this  style  of  per- 
formance. 

The  curtain  swells  out  and  approaches  my  face.  It  is  at 
this  moment  that  the  medium  falls  into  a  trance.  She  ut- 
ters sighs  and  lamentations  and  only  speaks  now  in  the 
third  person,  saying  that  she  is  John  King,  a  psychic  per- 
sonality who  claims  to  have  been  her  father  in  another  exist- 
ence and  who  calls  her  "  my  daughter  "  (mia  figlia).  This  is 
an  auto-suggestion  proving  nothing  as  to  the  identity  of  the 
force. 

Eive  new  taps  ask  for  still  less  light,  and  the  lamp  is 
almost  completely  turned  down,  but  not  extinguished.  The 
eyes,  growing  accustomed  to  the  clare-obscure,  still  distin- 
guish pretty  well  what  is  taking  place. 

The  curtain  swells  out  again,  and  I  feel  that  I  am  touched 
on  the  shoulder,  through  the  stuff  of  the  curtain,  as  if  by  a 
closed  fist.  The  chair  in  the  cabinet,  upon  which  are  placed 
the  music-box  and  the  bell,  is  violently  shaken,  and  the  ob- 
jects fall  to  the  floor.  The  medium  asks  again  for  less 
light,  and  a  red  photographic  lantern  is  placed  upon  the 
piano,  the  light  of  the  lamp  being  extinguished.  The  con- 
trol is  rigorously  kept  iip,  the  medium  agreeing  to  it  with 
the  greatest  docility. 

Eor  about  a  minute  the  music-box  plays  intermittent  airs 
behind  the  curtain,  as  if  it  Avas  turned  by  some  hand. 

The  curtain  moves  forward  again  toward  me,  and  a  rather 
strong  hand  seizes  my  arm.  I  immediately  reach  forward 
to   seize   the   hand,   but    I   grasp    only    the    empty    air.     I 


72  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

then  press  the  two  legs  of  the  medium  between  mine  and  I 
take  her  left  hand  in  my  right.  On  the  other  side,  her  right 
hand  is  firmly  held  in  the  left  hand  of  M.  de  Fontenay. 
Then  Eusapia  brings  the  hand  of  the  last  named  toward  my 
cheek,  and  imitates  upon  the  cheek,  with  the  finger  of  ]\I. 
de  Fontenay,  the  movement  of  a  little  revolving  crank  or 
handle.  The  music-box,  which  has  one  of  these  handles, 
plays  at  the  same  time  behind  the  curtain  in  'perfect  syn- 
chronism. The  instant  that  Eusapia's  hand  stops,  the 
music  stops:  all  the  movements  correspond,  just  as  in  the 
Morse  telegraphic  system.  We  all  amused  ourselves  with 
this.  The  thing  was  tried  several  times  in  succession,  and 
every  time  the  movement  of  the  finger  tallied  the  playing  of 
the  music. 

I  feel  several  touches  in  the  back  and  on  the  side.  M.  de 
Fontenay  receives  a  hard  slap  on  the  back  that  everybody 
hears.  A  hand  passes  through  my  hair.  The  chair  of  M. 
de  Fontenay  is  violently  pulled,  and  a  few  moments  after- 
wards he  cries,  '^  I  see  the  silhouette  of  a  man  passing  be- 
tween M.  Flammarion  and  me,  above  the  table,  shutting  out 
the  red  light !  " 

This  thing  is  repeated  several  times.  I  do  not  myself 
succeed  in  seeing  this  silhouette.  I  then  propose  to  M.  de 
Fontenay  that  I  take  his  place,  for,  in  that  case,  I  should  be 
likely  to  see  it  also.  I  soon  distinctly  perceive  a  dim  sil- 
houette passing  before  the  red  lantern,  but  I  do  not  recog- 
nize any  precise  form.  It  is  only  an  opaque  shadow  (the 
profile  of  a  man)  which  advances  as  far  as  the  light  and 
retires. 

In  a  moment,  Eusapia  says  there  is  some  one  behind  the 
curtain.     After  a  slight  pause  she  adds: 

"  There  is  a  man  by  my  side,  on  the  right :  he  has  a  great 
soft  forked  beard."     I  ask  if  I  may  touch  this  beard.     In 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         Y3 

fact,  while  lifting  mj  hand,  I  feel  a  rather  soft  beard 
brushing  against  it. 

A  block  of  paper  is  put  on  the  table  with  a  lead-pencil, 
with  the  hope  of  getting  writing.  This  pencil  is  flipped 
clear  across  the  room.  I  then  take  the  block  of  paper  and 
hold  it  in  the  air:  it  is  snatched  violently  from  me,  in  spite 
of  all  my  efforts  to  retain  it.  At  this  moment,  M.  de 
Eontenay,  with  his  back  turned  to  the  light,  sees  a  hand 
(a  white  hand  and  not  a  shadow),  the  arm  showing  as  far 
as  the  elbow,  holding  the  block  of  paper;  but  all  the  others 
declare  that  they  only  see  the  paper  shaking  in  the  air. 

I  did  not  see  the  hand  snatch  the  packet  of  paper  from 
me;  but  only  a  hand  could  have  been  able  to  seize  it  with 
such  violence,  and  this  did  not  appear  to  be  the  hand  of  the 
medium,  for  I  held  her  right  hand  in  my  left,  and  the  paper 
with  arm  extended  in  my  right  hand,  and  M.  de  Eontenay 
declared  that  he  did  not  let  go  of  her  left  hand. 

I  was  struck  several  times  in  the  side,  touched  on  the 
head,  and  my  ear  was  smartly  pinched.  I  declare  that  after 
several  repetitions  I  had  enough  of  this  ear  pinching;  but 
during  the  whole  seance,  in  spite  of  my  protestations,  some- 
body kept  hitting  me. 

The  little  round  table,  placed  outside  of  the  cabinet,  at 
the  left  of  the  medium,  approaches  the  table,  climbs  clear 
up  on  it  and  lies  across  it.  The  guitar  in  the  cabinet  is 
heard  moving  about  and  giving  out  sounds.  The  curtain 
is  puffed  out,  and  the  guitar  is  brought  upon  the  table, 
resting  upon  the  shoulder  of  M.  de  Eontenay.  It  is  then 
laid  upon  the  table,  the  large  end  toward  the  medium.  Then 
it  rises  and  moves  over  the  heads  of  the  company  without 
touching  them.  It  gives  forth  several  sounds.  The  phe- 
nomenon lasts  about  fifteen  seconds.  It  can  readily  be 
seen  that  the  guitar  is  floating  in  the  air,  and  the  reflection 
of  the  red  lamp  glides  over  its  shining  surface.     A  rather 


74  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

bright  gleam,   pear-shaped,   is   seen   on   the   ceiling  in  the 

other  corner  of  the  room. 

The  medium,  who  is  tired,  asks  for  rest  The  candles 
are  lighted.  Mme.  Blech  returns  the  objects  to  their  places, 
ascertains  that  the  cakes  of  putty  are  intact,  places  the 
smallest  upon  the  little  round  table  and  the  large  one  upon 
the  chair  in  the  cabinet,  behind  the  medium.  The  sitting 
is  resumed  by  the  feeble  glimmer  of  the  red  lantern. 

The  medium,  whose  hands  and  feet  are  carefully  con- 
trolled by  M.  de  Eontenay  and  myself,  breathes  heavily. 
Above  her  head  the  snapping  of  fingers  is  heard.  She  still 
pants,  groans,  and  sinks  her  fingers  into  my  hand.  Three 
raps  are  heard.  She  cries,  ^^  It  is  done"  {'' E  fatto''), 
M.  de  Eontenay  brings  the  little  dish  beneath  the  light  of 
the  red  lantern  and  discovers  the  impression  of  four  fingers 
in  the  putty,  in  the  position  which  they  had  taken  when  she 
gripped  my  hand. 

Seats  are  taken,  the  medium  asks  for  rest,  and  a  little 
light  is  turned  on. 

The  sitting  is  soon  resumed  as  before,  by  the  extremely 
feeble  light  of  the  red  lantern.  John  is  spoken  of  as  if  he 
existed,  as  if  it  was  he  whose  head  we  perceived  in  silhouette ; 
he  is  asked  to  continue  his  manifestations,  and  to  show 
the  impression  of  his  head  in  the  putty,  as  he  has  already 
several  times  done.  Eusapia  replies  that  it  is  a  difficult 
thing  and  asks  us  not  to  think  of  it  for  a  moment,  but  to 
go  on  speaking.  These  suggestions  of  hers  are  always  dis- 
quieting, and  we  redouble  our  attention,  though  without 
speaking  much.  The  medium  pants,  groans,  writhes.  The 
chair  in  the  cabinet  on  which  the  putty  is  placed  is  heard 
to  move.  The  chair  comes  forward  and  places  itself  by  the 
side  of  the  mediuui,  then  it  is  lifted  and  placed  upon  the 
head  of  Mme.  Z.  Dlceh,  Avhile  the  tray  is  lightly  placed  in 
the  hands  of  M.  Blech,  at  the  other  end  of  the  table.     Eu- 


MY  EXPEEIMEXTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         75 

sapia  cries  that  she  sees  before  her  a  head  and  a  bust,  and 
says,  ''  E  fatto''  (''It  is  done'')-  We  do  not  believe  her, 
because  M.  Blech  has  not  felt  any  pressure  on  the  dish. 
Three  violent  blows  as  of  a  mallet  are  struck  upon  the  table. 
The  light  IS  turned  on,  and  a  human  profile  is  found  im- 
printed upon  the  putty. 

Mme.  Z.  Blech  kisses  Eusapia  upon  both  cheeks,  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  out  whether  her  face  has  not  some  odor 
(glazier's  putty  having  a  very  strong  odor  of  linseed  oil 
which  remains  for  some  time  upon  the  fingers).  She  dis- 
covers nothing  abnormal. 

This  discovery  of  a  "  spirit  head "  in  the  putty  is  so 
astonishing,  so  impossible  to  admit  without  sufficient  veri- 
fication, that  it  is  really  still  more  incredible  than  all  the 
rest.  It  is  not  the  head  of  the  man  whose  profile  I  per- 
ceived, and  the  beard  I  felt  on  my  hand  is  not  there.  The 
imprint  has  a  resemblance  to  Eusapia's  face.  If  we  sup- 
posed she  produced  it  herself,  that  she  was  able  to  bury  her 
nose  up  to  the  cheeks  and  up  to  the  eyes  in  that  thick  putty, 
we  should  still  have  to  explain  how  that  large  and  heavy 
tray  was  transported  from  the  other  end  of  the  table  and 
gently  placed  in  the  hands  of  M.  Blech. 

The  resemblance  of  the  imprint  to  Eusapia  was  undenia- 
ble. I  reproduce  both  the  print  and  the  portrait  of  the 
medium.*  Every  one  can  assure  himself  of  it.  The  sim- 
plest thing,  evidently,  is  to  suppose  the  Italian  woman  im- 
printed her  face  in  the  putty. 

But  how  ? 

We  are  in  the  dark  as  to  this,  or  nearly  so.  I  sit  at  the 
right  hand  of  Eusapia,  ivlio  rests  her  head  upon  my  left 
shoulder,  and  whose  right  hand  I  am  holding.  M.  de  Eon- 
tenay  is  at  her  left^  and  has  taken  great  care  not  to  let  go 

*  See  PI.  IV.  and  V.  I  preserve  with  care  a  plaster  cast  of  this  im- 
print. 


76  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

of  the  other  hand.  The  tray  of  putty,  weighing  nine 
pounds,  has  been  placed  upon  a  chair,  twenty  inches  behind 
the  curtain,  consequently  behind  Eusapia.  She  cannot 
touch  it  without  turning  around,  and  we  have  her  entirely  in 
our  power,  our  feet  on  hers.  Now  the  chair  upon  which 
was  the  tray  of  putty  has  drawn  aside  the  hangings,  or  por- 
tieres, and  moved  forward  to  a  point  above  the  head  of  the 
medium,  who  remained  seated  and  held  down  by  us ;  moved 
itself  also  over  our  heads, —  the  chair  to  rest  upon  the  head 
of  my  neighbor,  Mme.  Blech,  and  the  tray  to  rest  softly  in 
the  hands  of  M.  Blech,  who  is  sitting  at  the  end  of  the  table. 
At  this  moment  Eusapia  rises,  declaring  that  she  sees  upon 
the  table  another  table  and  a  bust,  and  cries  out,  '"  E  fatto  " 
("  It  is  done  ").  It  was  not  at  this  time,  surely,  that  she 
would  have  been  able  to  place  her  face  upon  the  cake,  for  it 
was  at  the  other  end  of  the  table.  !N'or  was  it  before  this, 
for  it  would  have  been  necessary  to  take  the  chair  in  one 
hand  and  the  cake  with  the  other,  and  she  did  not  stir  from 
her  place.  The  explanation,  as  can  be  seen,  is  very  difficult 
indeed. 

Let  us  admit,  however,  that  the  fact  is  so  extraordinary 
that  a  doubt  remains  in  our  mind,  because  the  medium  rose 
from  her  chair  almost  at  the  critical  moment.  And  yet  her 
face  was  immediately  kissed  by  Mme.  Blech,  who  perceived 
no  odor  of  the  putty. 

Dr.  Ochorowicz  writes  as  follows  apropos  of  these  prints 
of  faces  and  of  the  study  which  he  made  of  them  at  Rome  :* 

The  imprint  of  this  face  was  obtained  in  darkness,  yet  at 
a  moment  when  I  held  the  two  hands  of  Eusapia,  while  my 
arms  were  entirely  around  her.  Or,  rather,  it  was  she  who 
clung  to  me  in  such  a  way  that  I  had  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  position  of  all  her  limbs.     Her  head  rested  against  mine, 

*  A.  de  Rochas,  The  ExicrnalxzaVion  of  Motivity,  fourth  edition,  1906, 
p.  406. 


■iKfc^: 


I'katk  IV.     Plaster  Cast  of  Imprint  Made  in  Putty  without 
Contact  by  the  Medium  Eusapia  Paladino. 


Plate  V.     Eusapia  Paladino,  Showing  Resemblance 
TO  THE  Imprint  in  Putty. 


MY  EXPERIME:^rTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         77 

and  even  with  violence.  At  the  moment  of  the  production 
of  the  phenomenon  a  convulsive  trembling  shook  her  whole 
body,  and  the  pressure  of  her  head  on  mj  temples  was  so 
intense  that  it  hurt  me. 

At  the  moment  when  the  strongest  convulsion  took  place, 
she  cried,  '^  Ah,  che  dura!''  (''Oh,  how  severe!")  We  at 
once  lighted  a  candle  and  found  a  print,  rather  poor  in  com- 
parison with  those  which  other  experimenters  have  obtained, 
—  a  thing  due,  perhaps,  to  the  bad  quality  of  the  clay  which 
I  used.  This  clay  was  placed  about  twenty  inches  to  the 
right  of  the  medium,  while  her  head  was  inclined  to  the  left. 
Her  face  was  not  at  all  soiled  by  the  clay,  which  was  yet  so 
moist  as  to  leave  traces  upon  the  fingers  when  touched. 
Moreover,  the  contact  of  her  head  w4th  mine  made  me  suffer 
so  much  that  I  am  absolutely  sure  it  was  not  intermitted  for 
a  single  moment.  Eusapia  was  very  happy  when  she  saw  a 
verification  made  under  conditions  in  which  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  suspect  her  good  faith. 

I  then  took  the  tray  of  clay,  and  we  passed  into  the  dining- 
room  in  order  to  better  examine  the  imprint,  which  I  placed 
on  a  large  table  near  a  big  I:erosene  lamp.  Eusapia,  who 
had  fallen  into  a  trance,  remained  for  some  moments  stand- 
ing, her  hands  resting  upon  the  table,  motionless  and  as  if 
unconscious.  I  did  not  lose  sight  of  her,  and  she  looked 
at  me  without  seeing  anything.  Then,  with  an  uncertain 
step,  she  moved  backward  toward  the  door  and  passed  slowly 
into  the  chamber  which  we  had  just  left.  We  followed  her, 
observing  her  all  the  while,  and  leaving  the  clay  behind  upon 
the  table.  We  had  already  got  into  the  chamber  when,  lean- 
ing against  one  of  the  halves  of  the  double  door,  she  fixed 
her  eyes  upon  the  tray  of  clay  which  had  been  left  upon  the 
table.  The  medium  w^as  in  a  very  good  light:  we  were 
separated  from  her  by  a  distance  of  from  six  to  ten  feet,  and 
we  perceived  distinctly  all  the  details.  All  of  a  sudden 
Eusapia  stretched  her  hand  out  abruptly  toward  the  clay, 
then  sank  down  uttering  a  groan.  We  rushed  precipi- 
tately towards  the  table  and  saw,  side  by  side  with  the  im- 
print of  the  head,  a  new  imprint,  very  marked,  of  a  hand 
which  had  been  thus  produced  under  the  very  light  of  the 
lamp,  and  which  resembled  the  hand  of  Eusapia.     I  have, 


78  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOKCES 

myself,  obtained  head  prints  a  dozen  times,  but  always  rather 
poor,  owing  to  the  quality  of  the  clay,  and  often  broken 
while  the  experiment  was  going  on. 

The  Chevalier  Chiaia,  of  I^aples,  who  first  obtained  these 
fantastic  pictures  through  the  agency  of  Eusapia,  wrote  as 
follows,  in  this  connection,  to  Count  de  Hochas : 

I  have  imprints  in  boxes  of  clay  weighing  anywhere  be- 
tween fifty-five  and  sixty-five  pounds.  I  mention  the  weight 
in  order  to  let  you  see  the  impossibility  of  lifting  and  trans- 
porting with  one  hand  alone  so  heavy  a  tray,  even  upon  the 
supposition  that  Eusapia  might,  unknown  to  us,  free  one 
of  her  hands.  In  almost  every  case,  in  fact,  this  tray,  placed 
upon  a  chair  three  feet  behind  the  medium,  was  brought  for- 
ward and  placed  very  gently  upon  the  table  about  which  we 
were  seated.  The  transfer  was  made  with  such  nicety  that 
the  persons  who  formed  the  chain  and  held  firmly  the  hands 
of  Eusapia  did  not  hear  the  least  noise,  did  not  perceive  the 
least  rustling.  We  were  forewarned  of  the  arrival  of  the  tray 
upon  the  table  by  seven  taps,  which,  according  to  oiu*  conven- 
tional arrangement,  John  struck  in  the  wall  to  inform  us  that 
we  could  turn  on  the  light.  I  did  so  at  once  by  turning  the 
cock  of  the  gas-fixture  which  was  suspended  above  the  table. 
(We  had  never  completely  extinguished  it.)  We  then  found 
the  tray  upon  the  table,  and,  upon  the  clay,  the  imprint  which 
we  supposed  must  have  been  made  before  its  transfer,  and 
while  it  was  behind  Eusapia,  in  the  cabinet  where  John  usu- 
ally materializes  and  manifests  himself. 

The  totality  of  these  observations  (which  are  very  nu- 
merous) leads  us  to  the  tliought  that,  in  spite  of  the  improb- 
ability of  the  thing,  these  imprints  are  produced  at  a  dis- 
tance by  the  medium. 

However,  some  days  after  the  seance  at  Montfort-1'Am- 
aury  I  wrote  as  follows: 

These  different  manifestations  are  not  to  me  equally  au- 
thentic.    1  am  not  sure  of  all  of  them,  for  the  phenomena 


MY  EXPEHIMEjSTTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         79 

were  not  all  produced  under  the  same  conditions  of  certainty. 
I  should  wish  to  class  the  facts  in  the  following  order  of  de- 
creasing certainty: 

1.  Levitations  of  the  table. 

2.  Movements  of  the  round  table  without  contact. 

3.  Mallet  blows. 

4.  Movements  of  the  curtain. 

5.  Opaque  silhouette  passing  before  the  red  lamp. 

6.  Sensation  of  a  beard  upon  the  back  of  the  hand. 

7.  Touchings. 

8.  Snatching  of  the  block  of  paper. 

9.  Throwing  of  the  lead-pencil. 

10.  Transference  of  the  round  table  to  the  top  of  the  other 

table. 

11.  Music  from  the  little  box. 

12.  Transfer  of  the  guitar  to  a  point  above  the  head. 

13.  Imprints  of  a  hand  and  of  a  face. 

The  first  four  events,  having  taken  place  in  full  light,  are 
incontestable.  I  should  put  almost  in  the  same  rank  ]^os. 
5  and  6.  Xo.  7  may  perhaps  be  due  very  often  to  fraud. 
The  last  in  the  list,  having  been  produced  toward  the  end  of 
the  seance,  at  a  time  when  attention  was  necessarily  relaxed, 
and  being  still  more  extraordinary  than  all  the  others,  I  con- 
fess that  I  cannot  admit  it  with  certainty,  although  I  can 
not  understand  how  it  could  have  been  due  to  fraud.  The 
four  others  seem  genuine ;  but  I  should  like  to  observ^e  them 
anew;  a  man  could  wager  ninety-nine  to  one  hundred  that 
they  are  true.  I  was  absolutely  sure  of  them  during  the 
seance.  But  the  vividness  of  the  impressions  grows  weak, 
and  we  have  a  tendency  to  listen  only  to  the  voice  of  plain 
common  sense, —  the  most  reasonable  and  the  most  deceptive 
of  our  faculties. 

The  first  impression  we  get  upon  the  reading  of  these  re- 
ports is  that  these  different  manifestations  are  rather  vulgar, 
altogether  banal,  and  do  not  tell  us  anything  about  the  other 
world  —  or  about  other  worlds.  Surely  it  does  not  seem 
probable  that  any  spiritual  heing  would  take  part  in  such 
performances.  Eor  these  phenomena  are  of  an  absolutely 
material  class. 


80  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  is  impossible  not  to  rec- 
ognize the  existence  of  unknown  forces.  The  simple  fact, 
for  example,  of  the  levitation  of  a  table  to  a  height  of  six 
and  one-half,  eight,  sixteen  inches  from  the  floor  is  not  banal 
at  all.  It  seems  to  me,  speaking  for  myself  alone,  so  ex- 
traordinary that  my  opinion  is  very  well  expressed  when  I 
say  that  I  do  not  dare  to  admit  it  without  having  seen  it 
myself,  with  my  own  eyes:  I  mean  that  which  is  called 
seeing,  in  full  light  and  under  such  conditions  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  suspect.  While  we  are  very  sure  that  we 
have  proved  it,  we  are  at  the  same  time  sure  that  in  such 
experiments  there  emanates  from  the  human  body  a  force 
that  may  be  compared  with  the  magnetism  of  the  loadstone, 
able  to  act  upon  wood,  upon  matter  (somewhat  as  the  load- 
stone acts  upon  iron),  and  counterbalancing  for  some  mo- 
ments the  action  of  gravity.  Erom  the  scientific  point  of 
view,  that  is  a  weighty  fact  in  itself.  I  am  absolutely  cer- 
tain that  the  medium  did  not  lift  that  weight  of  fifteen 
pounds  either  by  her  hands  or  by  her  legs,  or  by  her  feet, 
and,  furthermore,  no  one  of  the  company  was  able  to  do  it. 
The  table  was  lifted  by  its  upper  surface.  We  are,  there- 
fore, certainly  in  the  presence  of  an  unknown  force  here 
which  emanates  from  the  persons  present,  and  above  all  from 
the  medium. 

A  rather  curious  observation  ought  to  be  made  here. 
Several  times  during  the  course  tf  this  seance,  and  during 
the  levitation  of  the  table,  I  said,  ^'  There  is  no  spirit." 
Every  time  I  said  this  two  violent  blows  of  protestation  were 
struck  in  the  table.  I  have  already  remarked  that,  gener- 
ally, we  are  supposed  to  admit  the  Spiritualistic  hypothesis 
and  to  ask  a  spirit  to  exert  himself  in  order  that  we  may 
obtain  the  phenomena.  We  have  here  a  psychological  mat- 
ter not  without  importance.  Still,  it  does  not  seem  to  me, 
for  all  that,  to  prove  the  real  existence  of  spirits,  for  it  might 


MY  EXPEEIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA  81 

happen  that  this  idea  was  necessary  to  the  concentration  of 
the  forces  present  and  had  a  purely  subjective  value.  Re- 
ligious zealots  who  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  are  the 
dupes  of  their  own  imagination;  and  yet  no  one  can  doubt 
that  certain  of  these  petitions  appear  to  have  been  granted 
by  a  beneficent  deity.  The  Italian  or  Spanish  girl  who 
goes  to  beg  of  the  Virgin  Mary  that  she  will  punish  her  lover 
for  an  infidelity  may  be  sincere,  and  never  suspects  the 
strangeness  of  her  request  In  dreams  we  all  converse 
every  night  with  imaginary  beings.  But  there  is  something 
more  here:  the  medium  really  duplicates  herself. 

I  take  the  point  of  view  solely  of  the  physicist  whose 
business  is  to  observe,  and  I  say,  whatever  may  be  the 
explanatory  hypothesis  you  may  adopt,  there  exists  an  invis- 
ible force  derived  from  the  organism  of  the  medium,  and  hav- 
ing the  power  to  emerge  from  him  and  to  act  outside  of  him. 

That  is  the  fact:  what  is  the  best  hypothesis  to  explain 
it  ?  1.  Is  it  the  medium  who  herself  acts,  in  an  unconscious 
manner,  by  means  of  an  invisible  force  emanating  from  her  ? 
2.  Is  it  an  intelligent  cause  apart  from  her,  a  soul  that  has 
already  lived  upon  this  earth,  who  draws  from  the  medium 
a  force  which  it  needs  in  order  to  act  ?  3.  Is  it  another 
kind  of  invisible  beings  ?  Nothing  authorizes  us  to  affirm 
that  there  may  not  exist,  side  by  side  with  us,  living,  invis- 
ible forces.  There  you  have  three  very  different  hypotheses, 
none  of  which  seems  to  me,  as  far  as  my  personal  experience 
goes,  to  be  as  yet  conclusively  proved. 

But  there  certainly  emanates  from  the  medium  an  invis- 
ible force;  and  the  participants,  by  forming  the  psychic 
chain  and  by  uniting  their  sympathetic  wills,  increase  this 
force.  This  force  is  not  immaterial.  It  may  be  a  sub- 
stance, an  agent  emitting  radiations  of  wave-lengths  which 
make  no  impression  on  our  retina,  and  which  are  neverthe- 
less very  powerful.     In  the  absence  of  light  rays  it  is  able 


82  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

to  condense  itself,  take  shape,  affect  even  a  certain  resem- 
blance to  the  human  body,  to  act  as  do  our  organs,  to  vio- 
lently strike  a  table,  or  touch  us. 

It  acts  as  if  it  were  an  independent  being.  But  this  inde- 
pendence does  not  really  exist;  for  this  transitory  being  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  organism  of  the  medium,  and 
its  apparent  existence  ceases  when  the  conditions  of  its  pro- 
duction themselves  cease. 

While  writing  these  monstrous  scientific  heresies,  I  feel 
very  deeply  that  it  is  difficult  to  accept  them.  Still,  after 
all,  who  can  trace  the  limits  of  science?  We  have  all 
learned,  especially  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  that 
our  knowledge  is  not  a  very  colossal  affair,  and  that,  apart 
from  astronomy,  there  is  as  yet  no  exact  science  founded 
upon  absolute  principles.  And  then,  when  all  is  said,  there 
are  the  facts  to  be  explained.  Doubtless  it  is  easier  to  deny 
them.  But  it  is  not  decent  or  civil.  He  who  has  merely 
failed  to  find  what  satisfies  him  has  no  right  to  deny.  The 
best  he  can  do  is  simply  to  say,  "  I  know  nothing  about  it." 

The  fact  is  that,  as  yet,  we  have  not  elementary  data 
enough  to  enable  us  to  characterize  these  forces ;  but  we  ought 
not  to  lay  the  blame  upon  those  who  study  them. 

To  sum  up,  I  believe  that  I  am  able  to  go  a  little  farther 
than  M.  Schiaparelli  and  affirm  the  certain  existence  of 
unknown  forces  capable  of  moving  matter  and  of  counter- 
balancing the  action  of  gravity.  There  is  a  complex  totality, 
as  yet  difficult  to  disentangle,  of  psychic  and  physical  forces. 
But  such  facts,  however  extravagant  they  may  appear,  are 
worthy  of  coming  within  the  sphere  of  scientific  observation. 
It  is  even  probable  that  they  tend  powerfully  to  elucidate 
the  problem  (a  matter  of  supreme  importance  to  us)  of  the 
nature  of  the  human  soul. 

After  the  end  of  that  s^'ance  of  the  27th  of  July,  1897, 
as   I  desired  to  see  again  the  levitation  of  a  table  in  full 


Plate  Yl 


Photograi'ii  of  thk  Table  Resting  os  the  Floor. 


Photograph  of  the  Same  Table  Raised  to  a  Height  of  Twenty- 
five  Centimetres.     Made  by  M.  G.  de  Fontenay. 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA  83 

light,  the  chain  was  formed  standing,  the  hands  lightly 
placed  upon  the  table.  The  latter  began  to  oscillate,  then 
rose  up  to  a  height  of  nine  inches  from  the  floor,  remained 
there  several  seconds  (all  the  participators  remaining  on 
their  feet),  and  fell  heavily  back  again. "^ 

M.  G.  de  Fontenay  succeeded  in  getting  several  photo- 
graphs by  the  magnesium  light.  I  reproduce  two  of  them 
here  (PI.  VI.).  There  are  five  experimenters  who  are,  from 
left  to  right,  M.  Blech,  Mme.  Z.  Blech,  Eusapia,  myself, 
Mile.  Blech.  In  the  first  photograph  the  table  rests  upon 
the  floor.  In  the  second  it  floats  in  air,  coming  up  as  high 
as  the  arms,  at  a  height  of  about  ten  inches  on  the  left  and 
eight  inches  on  the  right.  I  hold  my  right  foot  resting  upon 
Eusapia's  feet  and  my  right  hand  upon  her  knees.  With 
my  left  hand  I  hold  her  left  hand.  The  hands  of  all  the 
others  are  upon  the  table.  It  is  therefore  altogether  impos- 
sible for  her  to  employ  any  muscular  action.  This  photo- 
graphic record  confirms  that  of  PI.  I.,  and  it  seems  to 
me  dijBficult  not  to  recognize  its  undeniable  documentary 
value,  f 

After  this  seance  my  most  ardent  desire  was  to  see  the 
same  experiments  reproduced  at  my  own  house.  In  spite 
of  all  the  care  I  took  with  my  observations,  several  objec- 
tions can  be  taken  to  the  absolute  certainty  of  the  phenomena. 
The  most  important  arises  from  the  existence  of  the  little 
dark  cabinet.  Personally,  I  was  sure  of  the  perfect  probity 
of  the  honorable  Blech  family,  and  I  am  unable  to  accept  the 
idea  of  any  trickery  whatever  on  the  part  of  any  of  its  mem- 
bers.    But  the  opinion  of  readers  of  the  formal  report  may 

*  The  reports  of  the  sittings  at  Montfort-l'Amaury  form  the  subject 
of  a  remarkable  work  by  M.  Guillaume  de  Fontenay,  Apropos  of  Eu- 
sapia Paladino,  one  vol.,  8vo.  illustrated,  Paris,  1898. 

t  The  respective  places  of  the  persons  were  not  always  those  of  the 
photographs.  Thus,  at  the  time  of  the  production  of  the  imprint,  M. 
G.  de  Fontenay  was  at  the  right  of  Eusapia,  and  M.  Blech  at  the  same 
end  of  the  table. 


84  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

not  be  so  well  assured.  It  was  not  impossible  that,  even 
unknown  to  the  members  of  the  family,  some  one,  with  the 
connivance  of  the  medium,  glided  into  the  room,  favored  by 
the  dim  light,  and  produced  the  phenomena.  An  accom- 
plice entirely  clothed  in  black  and  walking  barefoot  would 
have  been  able  to  hold  the  instruments  up  in  the  air,  put 
them  in  movement,  make  the  touches,  and  cause  the  black 
mask  to  move  at  the  end  of  a  rod,  etc. 

This  objection  could  be  verified  or  quashed  by  renewing 
the  experiments  at  my  house,  in  a  room  of  my  o^\ti,  where 
I  should  be  absolutely  certain  that  no  confederate  could 
enter.  I  should  myself  arrange  the  curtain,  I  should  place 
the  chairs,  I  should  be  certain  that  Eusapia  would  come 
alone  to  my  apartments,  she  would  be  asked  to  undress  and 
dress  in  the  presence  of  two  lady  examiners,  and  every  sup- 
position of  fraud  alien  to  her  proper  personality  would  thus 
be  annihilated. 

At  this  epoch  (189S)  I  was  preparing,  for  VAnnales 
politiqucs  et  litteraircs,  some  articles  upon  psychic  phe- 
nomena, which,  revised  and  amplified,  afterwards  formed 
my  work,  The  Unknown.  The  eminent  and  sympathetic 
editor  of  the  review  showed  himself  assiduous  in  exam- 
ining with  me  tlie  best  means  of  realizing  this  scheme  of 
personal  experiences.  Upon  our  invitation,  Eusapia  came 
to  Paris  to  pass  the  month  of  Xovember,  IS 9 8,  and  to  devote 
eight  soirees  especially  to  us  —  namely,  the  10th,  12th,  14th, 
16th,  19th,  21st,  25th,  and  28th  of  November.  We  had 
invited  several  friends  to  be  present.  Each  one  of  these 
seances  was  the  subject  of  a  formal  report  by  several  of  those 
who  were  present,  notably  by  MM.  Charles  Richet,  A.  de 
Ilochas,  Victorien  Sardou,  Jules  Claretie,  Adolphe  Brisson, 
Kene  Baschet,  Arthur  Levy,  Gustave  Le  Bon,  Jules  Bois, 
Gaston  Mery,  G.  Delanne,  G.  de  Fontenay,  G.  Armelin, 
Andre  Bloch,  etc. 


MY  EXPERIME:NrTS  WITH  EUSAPIA  85 

We  met  in  my  salon  in  the  avenue  de  I'Observatoire,  in 
Paris.  There  were  no  special  arrangements,  except  the 
stretching  of  two  curtains  in  one  corner,  before  the  angle  of 
two  walls,  thus  forming  a  kind  of  triangTilar  cabinet,  the 
walls  about  which  are  there  unbroken,  without  door  or  win- 
dow. The  front  of  the  cabinet  was  closed  by  these  two 
curtains,  reaching  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor  and  meeting 
in  the  middle. 

It  is  before  this  kind  of  cabinet  that  the  reader  will  please 
imagine  the  medium  to  be  seated,  with  a  white  wooden  table 
(kitchen  table)   before  her. 

Behind  the  curtain,  upon  the  plinth  of  the  projection  of 
a  bookcase  and  upon  a  table,  we  placed  a  guitar,  also  a 
violin,  a  tambourine,  an  accordion,  a  music-box,  cushions, 
and  several  small  objects,  which  were  to  be  shaken,  seized, 
thrown  about  by  the  unknown  force. 

The  first  result  of  these  seances  in  Paris,  at  my  house,  was 
absolutely  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  con- 
federate is  inadmissible  and  ought  to  be  entirely  eliminated. 
Eusapia  acts  alone. 

The  fifth  seance  led  me,  moreover,  to  think  that  the  phe- 
nomena take  place  (at  least  a  certain  number)  when  the 
hands  of  Eusapia  are  closely  held  by  two  controllers,  that  it 
is  not  generally  with  her  hands  that  she  acts,  in  spite  of 
certain  possible  trickeries ;  for  it  would  be  necessary  to  admit 
(an  abominable  heresy!)  that  a  third  hand  could  be  formed 
in  organic  connection  with  her  body ! 

Before  every  seance  Eusapia  was  undressed  and  dressed 
again  in  the  presence  of  two  ladies  charged  with  seeing  that 
she  did  not  hide  any  tricking  apparatus  under  her  clothes. 

It  would  be  a  little  long  to  go  thoroughly  into  the  details  of 
these  eight  sittings,  and  it  would  be  partly  to  go  over  what 
has  already  been  described  and  commented  upon  in  the  first 
chapter,   as  well   as  in  the  preceding   pages.     But   it  will 


86  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

not  be  uninteresting  to  give  here  the  estimate  of  several  of 
the  sitters,  by  reproducing  some  of  the  reports. 

I  will  begin  with  that  of  M.  Arthur  Levy,  because  he 
describes  very  fully  the  installation,  the  impression  produced 
upon  him  by  a  medium,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  facts 
observed. 

Report  of  M.  Arthur  Levy 

{Seance  of  November  16) 

That  which  I  am  going  to  relate  I  saw  yesterday  at  your 
house.  I  saw  it  with  distrust,  closely  observing  all  that 
might  have  resembled  trickery;  and,  after  I  had  seen  it,  I 
found  it  so  far  beyond  the  things  that  we  are  accustomed  to 
conceive  that  I  still  ask  myself  if  I  really  saw  it.  Yet  I 
must  confess  that  I  have  not  been  dreaming. 

When  I  arrived  at  your  salon,  I  found  the  furniture  and 
all  the  other  arrangements  as  usual.  On  entering,  only  a 
single  change  could  be  remarked  at  the  left,  where  two  thick 
curtains  of  gi'ay  and  green  rep  concealed  a  little  comer. 
Eusapia  was  to  perform  her  wonders  before  this  kind  of 
alcove.  This  was  the  mysterious  corner :  I  examined  it  very 
minutely.  It  had  in  it  a  little  round  uncovered  table,  a 
tambourine,  a  violin,  an  accordion,  castanets,  and  one  or  two 
cushions.  After  this  precautionary  visit,  I  was  certain  that 
in  this  place  at  least  there  was  no  preparation,  and  that  no 
communication  with  the  outside  was  possible. 

I  hasten  to  say  that  from  this  moment  up  to  the  end  of 
the  experiments  we  did  not  leave  the  room  for  a  single  min- 
ute, and  that,  so  to  speak,  we  had  our  eyes  constantly  fixed 
upon  this  corner,  the  curtains  of  which,  however,  were  al- 
ways partly  open. 

Some  moments  after  my  examination  of  the  cabinet  Eusa- 
pia arrives, —  the  famous  Eusapia.  As  almost  always  hap- 
pens, she  looks  quite  different  from  what  I  had  anticipated. 
Wliere  I  liad  oxpocted  to  see  — ■  I  do  not  well  know  why,  in- 
deed —  a  tall  thin  woman  with  a  fixed  look,  piercing  eyes, 
with  bony  hands,  and  abrupt  movements,  agitated  by  nerves 


MY  EXPEEIMEXTS  WITH  EFSAPIA  87 

incessantly  trembling  under  perpetual  tension,  I  find  a 
woman  in  the  forties,  rather  plump,  with  a  tranquil  air,  soft 
hand,  simple  in  her  manners,  and  slightly  shrinking.  Alto- 
gether, she  has  the  air  of  an  excellent  woman  of  the  people. 
Yet  two  things  arrest  the  attention  when  you  look  at  her. 
First,  her  large  eyes,  filled  w4th  strange  fire,  sparkle  in  their 
orbits,  or,  again,  seem  filled  with  swift  gleams  of  phos- 
phorescent fire,  sometimes  bluish,  sometimes  golden.  If  I 
did  not  fear  that  the  metaphor  was  too  easy  when  it  con- 
cerns a  Xeapolitan  woman,  I  should  say  that  her  eyes  appear 
like  'the  glowing  lava  fires  of  Vesuvius,  seen  from  a  distance 
in  a  dark  night 

The  other  peculiarity  is  a  mouth  with  strange  contours. 
We  do  not  know  whether  it  expresses  amusement,  suffering, 
or  scorn.  These  peculiarities  impress  themselves  on  the 
mind  almost  simultaneously,  without  our  knowing  on  which 
one  to  fix  the  attention.  Perhaps  we  should  find  in  these 
features  of  her  face  an  indication  of  forces  which  are  acting 
in  her,  and  of  which  she  is  not^  altogether  the  mistress. 

She  takes  a  seat,  enters  into  all  the  commonplaces  of  the 
conversation,  speaking  in  a  gentle,  melodious  voice,  like  many 
women  of  her  country.  She  uses  a  language  difficult  for 
herself  and  not  less  difficult  for  others,  for  it  is  neither 
French  nor  Italian.  She  makes  painful  efforts  to  make  her- 
self understood,  and  sometimes  does  this  by  mimicry  (or 
sign-language)  and  by  willing  to  obtain  that  which  she 
wants.  However,  a  persistent  irritation  of  the  throat,  like 
a  pressure  of  blood  returning  at  short  intervals,  forces  her 
to  cough,  to  ask  for  water.  I  confess  that  these  paroxysms, 
in  w^hich  her  face  became  deeply  flushed,  caused  me  great 
anxiety.  Were  we  going  to  have  the  inevitable  indisposi- 
tion of  the  rare  tenor,  on  the  day  when  he  was  to  be  heard  on 
the  stage?  Happily,  nothing  of  the  kind  took  place.  It 
was  rather  a  sign  of  the  contrary,  and  seemed  like  a  fore- 
runner of  the  extreme  excitement  which  was  going  to  take 
possession  of  her  on  that  evening.  In  fact,  it  is  very  re- 
markable that  from  the  moment  when  she  put  herself  —  how 
shall  I  say  it  ?  —  in  condition  for  work,  the  cough,  the  irri- 
tation of  the  throat,  completely  disappeared. 

When  her  fingers  w^ere  placed  on  black  wool, —  to  be  frank, 


88  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

upon  the  trousers  cloth  of  one  of  the  company, —  Eusapia 
called  our  attention  to  the  kind  of  diaphanous  marks  made 
upon  them  (the  lingers),  a  distorted,  elongated  second  con- 
tour. She  tells  us  that  that  is  a  sign  that  she  is  going  to  be 
given  great  power  to-day. 

While  we  are  talking  some  one  puts  a  letter-weigher  on 
the  table.  Putting  her  hands  down  on  each  side  of  the  let- 
ter-weigher, and  at  a  distance  of  four  inches,  she  causes  the 
needle  to  move  to  No.  35  engraved  on  the  dial  plate  of  the 
weigher.  Eusapia  herself  asked  us  to  convince  ourselves, 
by  inspection,  that  she  did  Jiot  have  a  hair  leading  from  one 
hand  to  the  other,  and  with  which  she  could  fraudulently 
press  upon  the  tray  of  the  letter-weigher.  This  little  by- 
])lay  took  place  when  all  the  lamps  of  the  salon  were  fully 
lighted.     Then  commenced  the  main  series  of  experiments. 

We  sit  around  a  rectangular  table  of  white  wood,  the  com- 
mon kitchen  table.  There  are  six  of  us.  Close  to  the  cur- 
tains, at  one  of  the  narrow  ends  of  the  table,  sits  Eusapia; 
at  her  left,  also  near  the  curtains,  is  M.  Georges  Mathieu, 
an  agricultural  engineer  at  the  observatory  in  Juvisy;  next 
comes  my  wife;  M.  Elannnarion  is  at  the  other  end,  facing 
Eusapia;  then  Mme.  Elammarion;  finally  myself.  I  am 
thus  placed  at  the  right  hand  of  Eusapia,  and  also  against 
the  curtain.  M.  Mathieu  and  myself  each  hold  a  hand  of 
the  medium  resting  upon  his  knee,  and,  furthermore,  Eu- 
sapia places  one  of  her  feet  upon  ours.  Consequently,  no 
movements  of  her  legs  or  arms  can  escape  our  attention. 
Note  well,  therefore,  that  this  woman  has  the  use  only  of 
her  head  and  of  her  bust,  which  latter  is  of  course  without 
the  use  of  the  arms,  and  is  in  absolute  contact  with  our 
shoulders. 

We  rest  our  hands  on  the  table.  In  a  few  moments  it 
begins  to  oscillate,  stands  on  one  foot,  strikes  the  floor,  rears 
up,  rises  wholly  into  the  air, —  sometimes  twelve  inches, 
sometimes  eight  inches,  from  the  ground.  Eusapia  utters  a 
shar])  cry,  resembling  a  cry  of  joy,  of  deliverance;  the  cur- 
tain behind  her  swells  out,  and,  all  inflated  as  it  is,  comes 
forward  upon  the  table.  Other  raps  are  heard  in  the  table, 
and  simultaneously  in  the  floor  at  a  distance  of  about  ten 
feet  from  us.     All  this  in  full  light. 


MY  EXPERIME^^TS  WITH  EUSAPIA  89 

Already  excited,  Eusapia  asks  in  a  supplicating  voice 
and  broken  words  that  we  lessen  the  lights.  She  can- 
not endure  the  dazzling  glare  in  her  eyes.  She  affirms 
that  she  is  tortured,  wants  us  to  hurry ;  "  for,"  she 
adds,  "  you  shall  see  fine  things."  After  one  of  us  has 
placed  the  lamp  on  the  floor  behind  the  piano,  in  the  corner 
opposite  the  place  where  we  are  (at  a  distance  of  about 
twenty-three  feet),  Eusapia  no  longer  sees  the  light  and  is 
satisfied;  but  we  can  distinguish  faces  and  hands.  Let  it 
not  be  forgotten  that  M.  Mathieu  and  I  each  have  a  foot  of 
the  medium  on  ours,  and  that  we  are  holding  her  hands 
and  knees,  that  we  are  pressing  against  her  shoulders. 

The  table  is  always  shaking  and  makes  sudden  jolts.  Eu- 
sapia calls  to  us  to  look.  Above  her  head  appears  a  hand. 
It  is  a  small  hand,  like  that  of  a  little  girl  of  fifteen  years, 
the  palm  forward,  the  fingers  joined,  the  thumb  projecting. 
The  color  of  this  hand  is  livid;  its  form  is  not  rigid,  nor  is 
it  fluid;  one  would  say  rather  that  it  is  the  hand  of  a  big 
doll  stuffed  with  bran. 

When  the  hand  moves  back  from  the  brighter  light,  as  it 
disappears, —  is  it  an  optical  illusion  ? —  it  seems  to  lose  its 
shape,  as  if  the  fingers  were  being  broken,  beginning  with 
the  thumb. 

M.  Mathieu  is  violently  pushed  by  a  force  acting  from 
behind  the  curtain.  A  strong  hand  presses  against  him,  he 
says.  His  chair  is  also  pushed.  Something  pulls  his  hair. 
While  he  is  complaining  of  the  violence  used  upon  him,  we 
hear  the  sound  of  the  tambourine,  which  is  then  quickly 
thro^m  upon  the  table.  Next  the  violin  arrives  in  the  same 
manner,  and  we  hear  its  strings  sound.  I  seize  the  tam- 
bourine and  ask  the  Invisible  if  he  wishes  to  take  it.  I 
feel  a  hand  grasping  the  instrument.  I  am  not  willing  to 
let  it  go.  A  struggle  now  ensues  between  myself  and  a 
force  which  I  judge  to  be  considerable.  In  the  tussle  a 
violent  effort  pushes  the  tambourine  into  my  hand,  and  the 
cymbals  penetrate  the  fiesh.  I  feel  a  sharp  pang,  and  a  good 
deal  of  blood  flows.  I  let  go  of  the  handle.  I  just  now  as- 
certain, by  the  light,  that  I  have  a  deep  gash  under  the 
right  thumb  nearly  an  inch  long.  The  table  continues  to 
shake,  to  strike  the  floor  with  redoubled  strokes,  and  the  ac- 


90  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

cordion  is  thrown  upon  the  table.  I  seize  it  by  its  lower 
half  and  ask  the  Invisible  if  he  can  pull  it  out  by  the  other 
end  so  as  to  make  it  play.  The  curtain  comes  forward,  and 
the  bellows  of  the  accordion  is  methodically  moved  back  and 
forth,  its  keys  are  touched,  and  several  different  notes  are 
heard. 

Eusapia  utters  repeated  cries,  a  kind  of  rattling  in  the 
throat.  She  writhes  nervously,  and,  as  if  she  were  calling 
for  help,  cries,  ''La  catena!  la  catena!"  ('^  The  chain!  the 
chain!").  We  thereupon  form  the  chain  by  taking  hold 
of  hands.  Then,  just  as  if  she  was  defying  some  monster, 
she  turns,  with  inflamed  looks,  toward  an  enormous  divan, 
which  thereupon  marches  up  to  us.  She  looks  at  it  wdth  a 
Satanic  smile.  Finally  she  blows  upon  the  divan,  which 
goes  immediately  back  to  its  place. 

Eusapia,  faint  and  depressed,  remains  relatively  calm. 
Yet  she  is  dejected;  her  breast  heaves  violently;  she  lays  her 
head  on  my  shoulder. 

M.  Mathieu,  tired  of  the  blows  which  he  is  constantly  re- 
ceiving, asks  to  change  places  with  some  one.  I  agree  to  this. 
He  changes  with  Mme.  F.,  who  then  sits  at  the  right  of 
Eusapia,  while  I  am  at  her  left.  Mme.  F.  and  I  never 
cease  to  hold  the  feet,  hands,  and  knees  of  the  medium.  M. 
F.  sets  a  water  bottle  and  a  glass  in  the  middle  of  the  table. 
The  latter's  brisk,  jolting  movements  overturn  the  water 
bottle,  and  the  water  is  spilled  over  its  surface.  The  me- 
dium imperatively  requires  that  the  liquid  be  wiped  up; 
the  water  upon  the  table  blinds  her,  tortures,  paralyzes  her, 
she  says.  M.  F.  asks  the  Invisible  if  he  can  pour  water 
into  the  glass.  After  some  moments  the  curtain  advances, 
the  carafe  is  grasped,  and  the  glass  seems  to  be  half  full. 
That  takes  place  several  different  times. 

Mmo.  F.,  being  no  longer  able  to  endure  the  blows  given 
'her  through  the  curtain,  exchanges  seats  with  her  husband. 

I  put  my  repeating  watch  upon  the  table.  I  ask  the  In- 
visible if  he  can  sound  the  alarm.  (The  mechanism  of  the 
alarm  is  very  difficult  to  understand,  delicate  to  operate,  even, 
for  me,  doing  it  every  day.  It  is  formed  by  a  little  tube 
cut  in  two,  one  half  of  which  glides  smoothly  over  the  other. 
In  reality,  there  is  only  a  projection  of  one-fiftieth  of  an 


MY  EXPERI]\IE>s^TS  WITH  EUSAPIA         91 

inch  of  thickness  of  tube,  upon  which  it  is  necessary  to  press 
with  the  finger-nail  and  give  quite  a  push  in  order  to  start 
up  the  alarm.)  In  a  moment  the  watch  is  taken  by  tho 
"  spirit."  We  hear  the  stem-winder  turning.  The  watch 
comes  back  upon  the  table  without  having  been  sounded. 

Another  request  is  made  for  the  alarm  to  sound.  The 
watch  is  again  taken;  the  case  is  heard  to  open  and  shut. 
(JSTow  I  cannot  open  this  case  with  my  hands :  I  have  to  pry 
it  open  with  a  tool  like  a  lever.)  The  watch  comes  back 
once  more  without  having  sounded. 

I  confess  that  I  experienced  a  disenchantment.  I  felt 
that  I  was  going  to  doubt  the  extent  of  the  occult  power, 
which  had,  nevertheless,  manifested  itself  very  clearly.  Why 
could  it  not  sound  the  alarm  of  this  watch  ?  In  making  my 
request,  had  I  overstepped  the  limits  of  its  powers  ?  Was 
I  going  to  be  the  cause  of  all  the  well-proved  phenomena  of 
which  we  have  had  testimony  losing  the  half  of  their  value  ? 
I  said  aloud: 

"  Am  I  to  show  how  the  alarm  is  operated  ?  " 

"  j^o,  no !  "  Eusapia  warmly  replies,  ''it  will  do  it." 

I  will  note  here  that  at  the  moment  when  I  proposed  to 
point  out  the  mechanism,  there  passed  through  my  mind  the 
method  of  pressing  upon  the  little  tube.  Immediately  the 
watch  was  brought  back  to  the  table;  and,  very  distinctly, 
three  separate  times,  we  heard  it  sound  a  quarter  to  eleven. 

Eusapia  was  evidently  very  tired;  her  burning  hands 
seemed  to  contract  or  shrivel ;  she  gasped  aloud  with  heaving 
breast,  her  foot  kept  quitting  mine  every  moment,  scraping 
the  floor  and  tediously  rubbing  along  it  back  and  forth. 
She  uttered  hoarse  panting  cries,  shrugging  up  her  shoulders 
and  sneering;  the  sofa  came  forward  when  she  looked  at  it, 
then  recoiled  before  her  breath;  all  the  instruments  were 
thrown  pell-mell  upon  the  table ;  the  tambourine  rose  almost 
to  the  height  of  the  ceiling;  the  cushions  took  part  in  the 
sport,  overturning  everything  on  the  table;  M.  M.  was 
thrown  from  his  chair.  This  chair  —  a  heavy  dining-room 
chair  of  black  walnut,  with  stuffed  seat  —  rose  into  the  air, 
came  up  on  the  table  with  a  great  clatter,  then  was  pushed 
off. 

Eusapia  seems  shrunken  together  and  is  very  much  af- 


92  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

fected.  We  pity  her.  We  ask  her  to  stop.  "  iSTo,  no !  '* 
she  cries.  She  rises^  we  with  her;  the  table  leaves  the  floor, 
rises  to  a  height  of  twenty-four  inches,  then  conies  clattering 
down. 

Eusapia  sinks  prostrated  into  a  chair.  We  sit  there 
troubled,  amazed,  in  consternation,  with  a  tense  and  con- 
stricted feeling  in  the  head,  as  if  the  atmosphere  were 
charged  with  electricity. 

With  many  precautions,  M.  E.  succeeds  in  calming  the 
agitation  of  Eusapia.  After  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  she 
returns  to  herself.  When  the  lamps  are  again  lighted,  she 
is  seen  to  be  very  much  changed,  her  eye  dull,  her  face  ap- 
parently diminished  to  half  its  usual  size.  In  her  trembling 
hands  she  feels  the  pricking  of  needles  which  she  asks  us  to 
pull  out.  Little  by  little  she  completely  recovers  her  senses. 
She  appears  to  remember  nothing,  not  to  comprehend  at  all 
our  expressions  of  wonder.  All  that  is  as  foreign  to  her  as 
if  she  had  not  been  present  at  the  sitting.  She  isn't  inter- 
ested in  it.  So  far  as  she  is  concerned,  it  would  seem  as  if 
we  were  speaking  of  things  of  which  she  had  not  the  faintest 
idea. 

What  have  we  seen  ?  mystery  of  mysteries ! 

We  took  every  precaution  not  to  be  the  dupes  of  com- 
plicity, of  fraud.  Superhimian  forces  acting  near  us,  so 
near  that  we  heard  the  very  breathing  of  a  living  being, — 
if  living  being  it  were, —  such  are  the  things  our  eyes  took 
cognizance  of  for  two  mortal  hours. 

And  when,  on  looking  back,  doubts  begin  to  creep  into  the 
mind,  we  must  conclude  that,  given  the  conditions  in  which 
we  were,  the  chicanery  necessary  to  produce  such  effects 
would  be  at  least  as  phenomenal  as  the  effects  themselves. 

How  shall  we  name  the  mystery  ? 

So  much  for  the  report  of  ]\I.  Arthur  Levy.  I  have  no 
commentary  to  make  at  present  upon  these  reports  of  my  fel- 
low-experimenters. The  essential  thing,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to 
leave  to  every  one  his  own  exposition  and  his  personal  judg- 
ment. I  shall  proceed  in  the  same  way  with  the  other  re- 
ports which  are  to  follow.     I  shall  reproduce  the  principal 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         93 

ones.  In  spite  of  some  inevitable  repetitions,  they  will 
surely  be  read  with  extreme  interest,  especially  when  we 
take  into  consideration  the  high  intellectual  standing  of  the 
observers. 

Report  of  M.  Adolphe  Brisson. 

(Seance  of  November  10) 

(There  were  present  at  this  stance,  besides  the  hosts  of  the  occasion, 
M.  Prof.  Richet,  M.  and  Mme.  Ad.  Brisson,  Mme.  Fourton,  M.  Andre 
Bloch,  M.  Georges  Mathieu.) 

The  following  are  occurrences  which  I  personally  observed 
with  the  greatest  care.  I  did  not  once  cease  to  hold  in  my 
right  hand  the  left  hand  of  Eusapia  or  fail  to  feel  that  we 
were  in  contact.  The  contact  was  only  interrupted  twice, — 
at  the  moment  when  Dr.  Eichet  felt  a  pricking  in  his  arm. 
Eusapia's  hand,  making  violent  movements,  escaped  from  my 
grasp;  but  I  seized  it  again  after  two  or  three  seconds. 

1.  After  this  sitting  had  begun, —  that  is,  at  the  end  of 
about  ten  minutes, —  the  table  was  lifted  up  away  from  Eu- 
sapia, two  of  its  legs  leaving  the  floor  simultaneously. 

2.  Five  minutes  later  the  curtain  swelled  out  as  if  it  had 
been  inflated  by  a  strong  breeze.  My  hand,  never  letting 
go  of  that  of  Eusapia,  pressed  gently  against  the  curtain, 
and  I  experienced  a  resistance,  just  as  if  I  had  pressed 
against  the  sail  of  a  ship  bellied  out  by  the  wind. 

3.  Not  only  was  the  curtain  puffed 
out,  forming  a  big  pocket,  but  the  per- 
pendicular edge  of  the  curtain  that 
touched  the  window  moved  automatic- 
ally aside  and  drew  back  as  if  it  were 
pushed  by  an  invisible  curtain  holder, 
making  nearly  this  kind  of  a  movement. 

4.  The  curtain,  inflated  anew,  took 
the  form  of  a  nose  or  of  an  eagle's  beak,  projecting  above  the 
table  about  eight  or  ten  inches.  This  shape  was  visible  for 
several  seconds. 

5.  We  heard  behind  the  curtain  the  noise  of  a  chair  roll- 
ing over  the  floor ;  by  a  first  push  it  arrived  as  far  as  I  was ; 
a  second  push  turned  it  upside  do^vn,  its  feet  in  the  air,  in 


/'■' 


94  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  position  sIio^ti.  It  was  a  hesivj  stuffed  chair.  Succeed- 
ing pushes  moved  it  again,  lifted  it  up, 
and  made  it  turn  somersaults ;  it  finally 
came  to  a  standstill  almost  in  the  place 
where  it  had  fallen  over. 

6.  We  heard  the  noise  of  two  or  three 
objects  falling  to  the  floor  (I  mean  ob- 
jects behind  the  curtain  upon  the  cen- 
tre-table). The  curtain  parted  in  the  middle,  and  in  the  dim 
light  the  little  violin  appeared.  Sustained  in  the  air  by  an 
invisible  hand,  it  came  gently  forw^ard  above  our  table, 
whence  it  settled  down  upon  my  hand  and  upon  that  of  my 
neighbor  on  the  left.* 

On  two  separate  occasions  the  violin  rose  from  the  table 
and  at  once  fell  back  again,  making  a  vigorous  leap,  like  a 
fish  flopping  upon  the  sand.  Then  it  glided  do^Ti  to  the 
floor,  where  it  remained  motionless  until  the  end  of  the 
sitting. 

7.  A  new  rolling  noise  was  heard  behind  the  curtain. 
This  time  it  was  the  centre-table.  A  preliminary  effort, 
quite  vigorous,  enabled  it  to  rise  half-way  to  the  top  of  our 
table.  By  a  second  effort  it  got  clear  on  top  and  rested  upon 
my  fore-arm. 

8.  Several  times  I  distinctly  felt  light  blows  upon  my 
right  side,  as  if  made  wdth  the  point  of  a  sharp  instrument. 
But  the  truth  compels  me  to  declare  that  these  blows  were  no 
longer  given  after  Eusapia's  feet  were  held  under  the  table 
by  11.  Bloch.  I  note  this  correlation  of  things  wdthout 
drawing  from  it  any  presumption  against  Eusapia's  loyalty. 
I  have  so  much  the  less  reason  to  suspect  her  in  that  her  left 
foot  did  not  leave  my  right  foot  during  the  whole  sitting. 

*  In  the  followinfj  sitting,  of  November  12,  M,  Antoniadi  writes 
(with  an  oxcollont  corroborative  sketch):  "Phenomenon  observed  with 
absolute  certainty;  the  violin  was  thrown  upon  the  table,  twenty  inches 
above  the  head  of  Eusapia." 


MY  EXPEEIMEXTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         95 

Report  of  M.  Tictorien  Sardoii 

(Seance  of  November  19) 

(There  were  present  at  this  seance,  besides  the  hosts  of  the  evening, 
M.  V.  Sardou,  M.  ana  Mme.  Brisson,  M.  A.  de  Rochas,  M.  Prof.  Richet, 
M.  G.  de  Fontenay,  M.  Gaston  Mery,  Mme.  Fourton,  M.  and  Mile,  des 
Varennes). 

I  shall  only  relate  here  phenomena  controlled  by  myself 
personally  in  the  seance  of  last  Saturday.  Consequently,  I 
say  nothing  of  the  arrangement  of  the  apartment,  of  the  ex- 
perimenters, nor  of  the  events  which  were  first  produced  in 
the  dark  and  which  all  the  participants  were  able  to  authenti- 
cate,—  such  as  cracking  sounds  in  the  table,  levitations,  dis- 
placements of  the  table,  raps,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  blowing 
out  of  the  curtain  over  the  table,  the  bringing  on  of  the  vio- 
lin, of  the  tambourine,  and  so  forth. 

Eusapia  having  invited  me  to  take  the  place  at  her  side 
which  had  been  vacated  by  M.  Brisson,  I  sat  down  on  her 
left,  while  you  preserved  your  place  on  her  right.  I  took 
her  left  hand  in  my  right  hand,  while  my  left  hand  placed 
upon  the  table  was  in  contact  with  that  of  my  neighbor,  the 
medium  insisting  on  this  several  times  in  order  that  the 
chain  might  not  be  broken.  Her  left  foot  rested  upon  my 
right  foot.  All  through  the  experiment  I  never  let  go  her 
hand  for  a  single  second.  She  grasped  my  hand  with  a 
strong  pressure,  and  it  followed  her  through  all  her  move- 
ments. In  the  same  way  her  foot  always  kept  in  contact 
with  mine.  My  foot  always  kept  touch  with  hers  in  all 
her  foot  scrapings  on  the  floor,  her  shiftings  of  place,  shrink- 
ings,  twitchings,  etc.,  which  never  had  anything  suspicious 
in  them,  nor  were  they  of  such  a  nature  as  to  explain  the 
events  which  took  place  at  my  side,  behind  me,  around  me, 
and  upon  me. 

In  the  first  place,  and  in  less  than  a  minute  after  I  had 
been  placed  on  the  left  of  the  medium,  the  curtain  nearest 
to  me  was  puffed  out  and  brushed  against  me,  as  if  impelled 
by  a  gust  of  wind.  Then  three  times  I  felt  upon  my  right 
side  a  pressure  which  lasted  but  for  a  moment,  yet  was  very 
marked.     At  that  moment  we  were  in  a  very  dim  light,  yet 


96  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

enough  to  make  the  faces  and  the  hands  of  all  who  were  pres- 
ent distinctly  visible.  After  Ensapia's  violent  nervous  con- 
tractions, struggles,  and  energetic  pushes  (precisely  like 
those  which  I  had  seen  in  similar  cases  elsewhere  and  which 
only  astonish  those  who  have  slightly  studied  these  phe- 
nomena), suddenly  the  curtain  nearest  to  me  was  blown  for- 
ward with  an  astonishing  propulsive  power  between  Eusapia 
and  me,  in  the  direction  of  the  table,  entirely  concealing 
from  me  the  face  of  the  medium;  and  the  violin,  which, 
with  the  tambourine,  had,  before  my  introduction,  been  re- 
placed in  the  dark  chamber,  was  hurled  to  the  middle  of 
the  table,  as  if  by  an  invisible  arm.  To  accomplish  this, 
the  arm  must  have  lifted  the  curtain  and  drawn  it  along 
with  it. 

After  this  the  curtain  returned  to  its  first  position,  but 
not  completely;  for  it  still  remained  puffed  out  a  little  be- 
tween Eusapia  and  me,  one  of  its  folds  remaining  upon  the 
edge  of  the  table  at  my  side. 

Then  you  took  the  violin  and  held  it  out  at  such  a  dis- 
tance from  the  two  curtains  that  it  was  wholly  visible  to  the 
company ;  and  you  invited  the  occult  agent  to  take  it. 

This  was  done,  the  mysterious  agent  taking  it  back  with 
him  into  the  dark  closet,  with  as  much  good  will  as  he  had 
shown  in  bringing  it  on. 

The  violin  then  fell  upon  the  floor  behind  the  curtains, 
or  i)ortieres.  One  of  these  which  was  nearest  to  me 
resumed  its  vertical  position,  and  for  a  time  I  heard  upon 
my  right  upon  the  floor  behind  the  curtains  a  kind  of  scrim- 
mage between  the  violin  and  the  tambourine,  which  were 
displaced,  pulled  about,  and  lifted,  clashing  and  resounding 
at  a  great  rate;  and  yet  it  was  impossible  to  attribute  any 
of  these  manifestations  to  Eusapia,  whose  foot  never  moved, 
but  remained  firmly  pressed  against  my  owti. 

A  little  after,  I  felt  against  my  right  leg,  behind  the  cur- 
tain, the  rubbing  of  a  hard  body  which  was  trying  to  climb 
upon  me,  and  I  thought  it  was  the  violin.  And  so  it  was, 
in  fact;  and,  after  an  imsuccessful  effort  to  climb  higher 
tlian  my  knee,  tliis  apparently  living  creature  fell  with  a 
bang  upon  the  floor. 

Almost  immediately  I  felt  a  new  pressure  upon  my  right 


MY  expeeime:n^ts  with  EUSAPIA       97 

hip,  and  mentioned  the  circumstance.  You  disengaged 
your  left  hand  from  the  chain,  and,  turning  toward  me, 
twice  made  in  the  air  the  gesture  of  the  director  of  an  or- 
chestra moving  his  baton  to  and  fro.  And  each  time,  with 
perfect  precision,  I  felt  upon  my  side  the  repercussion  of  a 
blow  exactly  tallying  your  gesture,  which  reached  me  after 
the  delay  of  a  second  more  or  less,  and  which  seemed  to 
me  to  correspond  exactly  to  the  time  necessary  for  the  trans- 
ference of  a  billiard  ball  or  a  tennis  ball  from  you  to  me. 

Some  one.  Dr.  E-ichet,  I  believe,  having  spoken  at  that 
time  of  strokes  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  sitters  in 
w^hich  the  action  and  shape  of  a  human  hand  was  very 
marked,  I  will  mention  as  a  proof  of  his  remark  that  I 
received  in  succession  three  blows  upon  the  left  shoulder 
(that  is  to  say,  the  one  most  distant  from  the  curtain  and 
from  the  medium),  more  violent  than  the  preceding  ones; 
and  this  time  the  heavy  pressure  of  the  five  fingers  was 
very  evident.  Then  a  last  blow  with  the  flat  of  the  hand, 
applied  in  the  small  of  the  back,  without  hurting  me  at  all, 
was  strong  enough  to  make  me  lean  forward,  in  spite  of  my- 
self, toward  the  table. 

Some  moments  after,  my  chair,  moving  under  me,  glided 
over  the  floor,  and  was  shifted  in  such  a  w^ay  as  to  leave  my 
back  turned  a  little  in  the  direction  of  the  dark  closet. 

I  leave  to  other  witnesses  the  task  of  telling  the  results 
of  their  personal  observations, —  how,  for  example,  the  vio- 
lin, having  been  picked  up  by  you  from  the  floor  and  replaced 
upon  the  table,  was  held  out  by  Mme.  Brisson,  as  you  had 
already  done,  and  lifted  up  in  the  same  way  in  the  sight  of 
all,  while  I  held  the  left  hand  of  Eusapia,  you  her  right 
hand,  and  w^ith  the  hand  which  remained  free  you  pressed 
the  wrist  of  her  left  hand. 

Nor  do  I  say  anything  of  a  hand-pressure  through  the 
opening  in  the  curtain,  having  seen  nothing  of  this  myself. 

But  that  which  I  did  see  very  well  indeed  was  the  sud- 
den appearance  of  three  very  vivid  little  lights  between  my 
neighbor  and  myself.  They  were  promptly  extinguished 
and  seemed  like  a  kind  of  will-o'-the-wisp,  similar  to  elec- 
tric sparks  coming  and  going  with  great  rapidity. 

In  short,  I  can  only  repeat  here  what  I  have  said  during 


98  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  course  of  these  experiments,   "  If  I  had  not  been  con^ 
vinced  forty  years  ago,  I  should  be  this  evening.'' 


Report  of  M.  Jules  Claretie. 

{Seance  of  Novemher  25) 

(There  were  present  at  this  sitting,  in  addition  to  the  hosts  of  the 
occasion,  M.  Jules  Claretie  and  his  son,  M.  Brisson,  M.  Louis  Vig- 
non,  Mme.  Fourton,  Mme.  Gagneur,  M.  G.  Delanne,  M.  Rene  Baschet, 
M.  and  Mme.  Basilewska,  M.  Mairet,  photographer.) 

I  note  only  the  impressions  I  received  after  the  moment 
when  Eusapia,  who  had  taken  my  hand  at  the  time  when 
M.  Brisson  was  still  seated  by  her,  asked  me  to  replace  him. 
I  am  certain  that  I  did  not  let  go  of  Eusapia's  hand  during 
all  the  experiments.  Every  moment  I  felt  the  pressure  of 
her  foot  upon  mine,  the  heel  being  especially  perceptible. 
I  do  not  believe  that  I  relaxed  my  fingers  for  a  moment,  nor 
released  the  hand  that  I  held.  I  was  struck  with  the  throb- 
bing of  the  arteries  at  the  end  of  Eusapia's  fingers:  the 
blood  bounded  feverishly  through  them. 

I  sat  next  the  curtain.  It  goes  without  saying  that  it  was 
drawn  from  right  to  left  or  from  left  to  right  just  as  it 
happened.  That  which  I  can't  understand  is  that  it  could 
swell  out  until  it  floated  over  the  table  like  a  sail  inflated  by 
the  wind. 

I  felt  at  first  a  little  light  blow  on  my  right  side.  Then, 
ihrough  the  curtain,  two  fingers  seized  me  and  pinched  my 
cheek.  The  pressure  of  the  two  fingers  was  evident.  A 
blow  more  violent  tlian  the  first  hit  me  on  the  right  shoulder, 
as  if  it  came  from  a  hard,  square  body.  My  chair  was  twice 
moved  and  turned,  first  backward,  then  forward. 

Those  two  fingers  which  pinched  my  cheek  I  had  already 
felt  —  before  I  took  my  place  at  Eusapia's  side  —  when  I 
was  holding  over  against  the  curtain  the  little  white  book 
which  M.  Flammarion  had  given  me.  This  book  was  seized 
by  two  naked  fingers  (I  say  naked,  because  the  folds  of  the 
curtain  did  not  cover  them)  and  then  disappeared.  I  did 
not  see  these  fingers :  I  touched  them,  or  they  touched  me,  if 


ii 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA         99 

you  will.  My  son  held  out  and  handed  over  also  a  leather 
cigar-holder,  which  was  grabbed  in  the  same  way. 

One  of  the  persons  present  saw  a  rather  heavy  little  music- 
box  disappear  in  the  same  way. 

With  hardly  a  moment's  delay  the  box  was  removed  from 
our  side  with  some  violence;  and  I  can  speak  with  the  more 
feeling  of  the  force  of  the  projection  and  of  the  weight  of 
the  object,  because  it  struck  me  under  the  eye,  and  this 
morning  I  still  have  upon  my  face  the  only  too  visible  mark 
of  it,  and  feel  the  pain  of  it.  I  don't  understand  how  a 
woman  seated  by  my  side  could  have  the  strength  to  throw 
with  such  force  a  box  which,  so  to  speak,  should  have  come 
from  quite  a  distance. 

I  observe,  however,  that  all  the  phenomena  are  produced 
on  the  same  side  of  the  curtain;  namely,  behind  it,  or 
through  it,  if  you  will.  I  saw  leafy  branches  fall  upon  the 
table,  but  they  came  from  the  side  of  the  said  curtain. 
Some  persons  assert  that  they  saw  a  green  twig  come  in 
through  the  open  window  which  gives  upon  Cassini  Street. 
But  I  did  not  see  that. 

There  was  a  little  round  table  behind  the  curtain,  very 
near  me.  Eusapia  takes  my  hand  and  places  it,  held  in 
hers,  upon  the  round  table.  I  feel  this  table  shaking,  mov- 
ing. At  a  given  moment  I  believe  that  I  perceive  two 
hands  near  by  and  upon  mine.  I  am  not  deceived ;  but  this 
second  hand  is  that  of  M.  Flammarion,  who,  on  his  side,  is 
holding  the  hand  of  the  medium.  The  round  table  bestirs 
itself.  It  leaves  the  floor,  it  rises.  I  have  the  feeling  of 
this  at  once.  Then,  the  curtain  having  lifted  and,  as  it 
were,  spread  itself  over  the  table,  I  can  distinctly  see  what 
passes  behind  it.     The  round  table  moves;  it  rises;  it  falls. 

Suddenly  tipping  partly  over,  it  rises  and  comes  toward 
me,  upon  me.  It  is  no  longer  vertical,  but  is  caught  be- 
tween the  table  and  me  in  a  horizontal  position.  It  comes 
with  sufiicient  force  to  make  me  recoil,  draw  in  my  shoulders, 
and  try  to  push  back  my  chair  to  let  this  moving  piece  of 
furniture  pass.  It  seems,  like  a  living  thing,  to  struggle 
between  the  table  and  me.  Or,  again,  it  seems  like  an  ani- 
mated being  struggling  against  an  obstacle,  desiring  to  pass 
or  move  on  and  not  being  able  to  do  so,  being  stopped  by  the 


100  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

table  or  by  myself.  At  a  given  moment  tbe  round  table  is 
upon  my  knees,  and  it  moves,  it  struggles  (I  repeat  the 
vv^ord),  without  my  being  able  to  explain  to  myself  what 
force  is  moving  it. 

This  force  is  a  formidable  one.  The  little  table  literally 
pushes  me  back,  and  in  vain  I  throw  myself  backward  to  let 
it  pass. 

Some  of  those  present,  M.  Baschet  among  others,  have 
said  to  me  that  at  this  moment  it  was  upon  two  fingers. 
Two  fingers  of  Eusapia  push  up  the  round  table !  * 

But  I,  who  had  not  lost  my  hold  on  her  left  hand  nor 
her  foot, —  I,  who  had  by  me  the  little  round  table  (quite 
visible  in  the  semi-obscurity  to  which  we  had  accustomed 
ourselves),  saw  nothing,  nor  did  I  perceive  any  effort  on 
the  part  of  Eusapia. 

I  should  like  to  have  seen  luminous  phenomena  produced, 
visions  of  brilliant  lights,  of  sudden  gleams  of  fire.  M. 
Elammarion  hoped  that  we  were  going  to  see  some  of  these. 
He  asked  for  them.  But  Eusapia  was  evidently  fatigued  by 
this  long  and  very  interesting  seance.  She  asked  for  ''  un 
poco  di  luce  ''  ('^  a  little  light  ").  The  lamps  were  relighted. 
Everything  was  finished. 

This  morning  I  recall  with  a  kind  of  anxious  curiosity  the 
least  details  of  this  very  fascinating  soiree.  When  we  had 
returned  to  the  observatory,  on  leaving  our  amiable  hosts, 
I  asked  myself  if  I  had  been  in  a  dream.  But  I  said  to 
myself,  "  We  were  present  at  the  skilful  performances  of  a 
woman  prestidigitator;  we  witnessed  only  theatrical  tricks." 
^ly  son  recalled  to  me  the  prodigies  of  skill  of  the  brothers 
Isola.  This  morning,  strange  to  say,  reflection  makes  me 
at  once  more  perplexed  and  less  incredulous.  We  perhaps 
witnessed  (we  undoubtedly  did  witness)  the  manifestation 
of  an  unknown  force  which  will  hereafter  be  studied  and 
perhaps  one  day  utilized.  I  should  no  longer  dare  to  deny 
the  genuineness  of  Spiritualism.  It  isn't  a  question  of  ani- 
mal magnetism:  it  is  something  else,  I  know  not  what;  a 
quid  divinuni  (a  divine  something),  although  science  will 
some  day  analyze  it  and  catalogue  it.     That  which  perhaps 

•  This  is  absolutely  true,  says  my  son,  who  is  reading  over  these 
lines 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       101 

astonished  me  the  most  was  the  curtain  swelling  out  like  a 
sail!  Where  did  the  puff  of  wind  come  from?  A  regular 
breeze  would  have  been  needed  to  put  such  life  into  it  as 
that.  However,  I  do  not  discuss :  I  give  in  my  evidence.  I 
have  seen  these  things,  observed  them  carefully.  I  shall  thiuK 
of  them  for  a  long  time.  I  do  not  stop  here.  I  shall  seek 
an  explanation.  Possibly  I  shall  find  one.  But  this  much 
is  certain,  that  we  ought  to  be  modest  in  the  presence  of  all 
that  appears  to  us  to  be  for  the  moment  inexplicable,  and 
that,  before  affirming  or  denying,  we  ought  to  wait,  to  re- 
serve our  judgment. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  feeling  of  my  right  maxillary 
tooth,  which  is  a  little  sore,  I  think  of  that  line  of  Regnard 
and  allow  myself  to  mangle  it  a  little  while  recalling  that 
hard  music-box, — 

*'*'  Je  vols  que  cest  un  corps  et  non  pas  un  esprit/' 
(I  see  that  it  is  a  body  and  not  a  spirit.) 


Report  of  Dr.  Gustave  Le  Bon 

(Seance  of  November  28) 

(There  were  present  at  this  stance,  besides  the  hosts,  M.  and  Mme. 
Brisson,  MM.  Gustave  Le  Bon,  Baschet,  de  Sergines,  Louis  Vignon, 
Laurent,  Ed.  de  Rothschild,  Delanne,  Bloch,  Mathieu,  Ephrussi,  Mme. 
la  Comtesse  de  Chevign6,  Mmes.  Gagneur,  Syamour,  Fourton,  Basi- 
lewska,  Bisschof sheim. ) 

Eusapia  is  undoubtedly  a  marvellous  subject.  It  struck 
me  as  something  wonderful  that,  w^hile  I  was  holding  her 
hand,  she  was  playing  on  an  imaginary  tambourine  to  which 
the  sounds  of  tlie  tambourine  that  was  behind  the  curtain 
accurately  corresponded. 

I  do  not  see  how  any  trick  is  possible  in  such  a  case,  any 
more  than  in  the  case  of  the  table. 

My  cigarette-holder  was  gi-asped  by  a  very  strong  hand, 
which  wrenched  the  object  from  me  with  a  good  deal  of 
energy.  I  was  on  my  guard  and  asked  to  see  the  experiment 
again.     The  phenomenon  was  so  singular  and  so  beyond  all 


102  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

that  we  can  comprehend  that  we  must  first  try  natural  ex- 
planations. 

1.  It  is  impossible  that  it  could  have  been  Eusapia.  I 
was  holding  one  of  her  hands  and  was  looking  at  the  other 
arm,  and  I  placed  my  cigarette-holder  in  such  a  position 
that,  even  with  her  two  arms  free,  she  would  not  have  been 
able  to  accomplish  such  a  mar\^ellous  thing. 

2.  It  is  not  probable  that  it  could  have  been  an  accom- 
plice; but  is  it  not  possible  that  the  unconscious  mind  of 
Eusapia  suggested  to  the  unconscious  mind  of  a  person  near 
the  curtain  to  pass  a  hand  behind  it  and  operate  there? 
Everybody  would  be  acting  in  good  faith  and  would  have 
been  deceived  by  the  unconscious  element.  This  important 
point  ought  to  be  verified,  for  no  experiment  would  be 
so  valuable  if  it  were  once  demonstrated. 

Could  not  Eusapia's  departure  be  put  off  ?  We  shall  not 
have  a  similar  opportunity,  and  we  surely  ought  to  clear  up 
that  phenomenon  of  the  hand. 

It  is  very  evident  that  the  table  was  lifted;  but  that  is  a 
material  phenomenon  which  one  can  readily  grant.  The 
hand  which  came  to  seize  my  cigarette-holder  performed  an 
act  of  the  will  implying  an  intelligence,  but  the  other  is 
nothing  of  the  kind.  Eusapia  might  lift  a  table  to  the  height 
of  three  feet  without  my  scientific  conception  of  the  world 
being  changed  by  it;  but  to  bring  in  the  intervention  of  a 
spirit,  that  would  be  to  prove  the  existence  of  spirits,  and  you 
see  the  consequences. 

As  for  the  hand  which  seized  the  cigarette-case,  it  is  ab- 
solutely certain  that  it  was  not  that  of  Eusapia  (you  know 
that  I  am  very  sceptical  and  that  I  was  looking  about  me)  ; 
but  close  to  the  curtain,  in  the  salon,  there  were  a  good  many 
people,  and  several  times  you  heard  me  ask  people  to  stand 
aside  from  the  curtain.  If  we  two  had  been  able  to  study 
Eusapia  absolutely  alone,  in  a  room  to  which  we  had  the 
key,  the  problem  would  soon  be  solved. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  make  this  verification,  the  sitting 
at  which  Dr.  Le  Bon  was  present  having  been  the  last  which 
Eusapia  had  consented  to  give  at  my  house.     But  his  objec- 


II 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA      103 

tion  is  of  no  value.  I  am  absolutely  certain  that  nobody 
glided  behind  the  curtain,  neither  in  this  particular  case  nor 
in  any  other.  My  wife,  also,  particularly  occupied  herself 
in  observing  what  took  place  in  that  part  of  the  room  and 
never  was  able  to  discover  anything  suspicious.  There  is 
only  one  hypothesis;  that  is,  that  Eusapia  herself  handled 
the  objects.  Since  Dr.  Le  Bon  declares  that  the  thing  was 
impossible,  he  himself  personally  inspecting  it,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  admit  the  existence  of  an  unknown  psychic  force.* 

Report  of  M.  Arinelin 

{Seance  of  November  21 ) 

(For  this  sitting  I  had  asked  three  members  of  the  Astronomical 
Society  of  France  to  exercise  the  severest  control  possible;  namely, 
M.  Antoniadi,  my  assistant  astronomer  at  the  observatory  of  Juvisy, 
M.  Mathieu,  agricultural  engineer  at  the  same  observatory,  and  M. 
Armelin,  secretary  of  the  Astronomical  Society.  The  last-named  gen- 
tleman sent  me  the  following  report.  There  were  also  present  M.  and 
Mme.  Brisson,  M.  Baschet,  M.  Jules  Bois,  Mme.  Fourton,  Mme.  La 
Comtesse  de  Labadye.) 

At  quarter  of  ten  Eusapia  takes  her  seat,  her  back  to  the 
place  where  the  two  curtains  meet,  her  hands  resting  upon 
the  table.  At  the  invitation  of  M.  Flammarion,  M.  Mathieu 
takes  his  seat  at  her  right,  charged  with  the  duty  of  keeping 
constant  watch  upon  her  left  hand,  and  M.  Antoniadi  is 
enjoined  to  do  the  same  for  her  right  hand.     They  also  make 

*  During  the  correction  of  the  proofs  of  these  sheets  (Oct.,  1906), 
I  received  from  Dr.  Gustave  Le  Bon  the  following  note: 

"At  the  time  of  her  last  sojourn  in  Paris  (1906),  I  was  able  to 
obtain  from  Eusapia  three  seances  at  my  house.  I  besought  one  of  the 
keenest  observers  that  I  know,  M.  Dastre, —  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Science  and  professor  of  physiology  at  the  Sorbonne, —  to  be  kind 
enough  to  be  present  at  our  experiments.  There  were  present  also  my 
assistant,  M.  Michaux,  and  the  lady  to  whose  kind  oflBces  I  owe  the 
presence  of  Eusapia. 

"  Besides  the  levitation  of  the  table,  we  several  times,  and  almost 
in  full  light,  saw  a  hand  appear.  At  first  it  was  about  two  inches 
and  a  half  above  Eusapia's  head,  then  at  the  side  of  the  curtain  which 
partly  covered  her,  about  twenty  inches  from  her  shoulder. 

"  We  then  organized,  for  the  second  stance,  our  methods  of  control. 


104  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

themselves  sure  of  her  feet.  At  the  right  of  M.  Mathieu 
sits  Mme.  la  Comtesse  de  Labadye;  on  the  left  of  M.  An- 
toniadi,  Mme.  Fourton.  Facing  Eusapia,  between  Mmes. 
de  Labadye  and  Fourton,  MM.  Flammarion,  Brisson,  Bas- 
chet,  and  Jules  Bois. 

The  gas  chandelier  is  lighted  and  the  full  light  turned  on. 
This  chandelier  is  almost  over  the  table.  A  little  lamp  with 
a  shade  is  placed  on  the  floor  behind  an  easy-chair,  near 
the  opposite  side  of  the  room,  in  the  direction  of  its  great- 
est length,  and  to  the  left  of  the  fireplace. 

At  five  minutes  of  ten  the  table  is  lifted  from  the  side 
opposite  to  the  medium  and  falls  back  with  a  bang. 

At  ten  o'clock  it  rises  from  the  side  of  the  medium,  who 
withdraws  her  hands,  the  other  persons  holding  their  hands 
lifted  up.  The  same  effect  is  produced  three  times.  The 
second  time,  while  the  table  is  in  the  air,  M.  Antoniadi  de- 
clares that  he  is  leaning  on  it  with  all  his  weight  and  is  un- 
able to  lower  it.  The  third  time,  M.  Mathieu  leans  on  it  in 
the  same  way  and  experiences  the  same  resistance.  During 
this  time,  Eusapia  holds  her  closed  fist  about  four  inches 
above  the  table,  looking  as  if  she  were  strongly  grasping 
something.  The  action  lasts  several  seconds.  There  is  no 
doubt  whatever  about  this  levitation.  When  the  table  falls 
back,  Eusapia  experiences  something  like  a  relaxation  after 
a  great  effort. 

At  10.03  the  table  is  lifted  clean  off  its  four  feet  at  once, 
at  first  on  the  side  opposite  to  the  medium,  rising  about  eight 
inches;  then  it  falls  abruptly  back,  ^yhile  it  is  in  the  air, 
Eusapia  calls  her  two  neighhors  to  witness  that  they  are 

They  were  altogether  decisive.  Thanks  to  the  possibility  of  producing 
behind  Eusapia  an  illumination  which  she  did  not  suspect,  we  were 
able  to  see  one  of  her  arms,  very  skilfully  withdrawn  from  our  con- 
trol, move  along  horizontally  behind  the  curtain  and  touch  the  arm 
of  M.  Dastro,  and  another  time  give  me  a  slap  on  the  hand. 

"  We  concluded  from  our  observations  that  the  phenomena  observed 
had  nothing  supernatural  about  them. 

"As  to  the  levitation  of  the  table, —  an  extremely  light  one,  placed 
before  Husapia,  and  which  her  hands  scarcely  left, —  we  have  not  been 
able  to  formulate  any  decisive  explanation.  I  will  only  observe  that 
Eusapia  admitted  that  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  displace  the  slight- 
est one  of  the  very  light  objects  placed  upon  that  table." 

After  writing  tliis  note,  M.  G.  Le  Bon  said  to  me  verbally  that, 
in  his  opinion,  everything  in  these  experiments  is  fraud. 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA        105 

closely  holding  her  hands  and  her  feet,  and  that  she  is  not  in 
contact  with  the  table. 

Then  light  raps  are  heard  in  the  table.  Eusapia  makes 
M.  Antoniadi  lift  his  hand  about  eight  inches  above  the 
table  and  taps  three  times  upon  his  hand  with  her  fingers. 
The  three  taps  are  heard  simultaneously  in  the  table. 

To  prove  that  she  is  not  using  either  her  hands  or  her 
feet,  she  sits  down  sidewise  upon  her  chair  on  the  left, 
stretches  out  her  legs,  and  puts  her  feet  on  the  edge  of  the 
chair  of  M.  Antoniadi :  she  is  in  full  view  and  her  hands  are 
held.  At  once  the  curtain  is  shaken  in  the  direction  of 
M.  A. 

Erom  10.10  to  10.15,  several  times  in  succession,  five  raps 
are  heard  in  the  table.  Each  time  the  gas  is  turned  do^vn  a 
little,  and  each  time  the  table  moves  without  contact. 

At  10.20  it  balances  itself,  suspended  in  the  air,  and 
resting  upon  the  two  legs  of  the  longer  side.  Then  it  rises 
off  of  its  four  feet  to  a  height  of  eight  inches. 

10.25.  The  curtain  moves,  and  M.  Flammarion  sajs 
that  there  is  some  one  behind  it,  that  somebody  is  pressing  his 
hand.  He  holds  his  hand  out  toward  the  curtain,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  about  four  inches.  The  curtain  is  pushed  out  into 
something  like  a  pocket  made  by  a  hand  which  is  drawing 
near.  The  medium  with  nervous  laugh  cries,  "  Take  it, 
take  it."  M.  A.  feels  through  the  curtain  the  touch  of  a 
soft  body,  like  a  cushion.  But  the  hand  of  M.  E.  is  not 
taken.  Objects  are  heard  to  move,  including  the  bells  of  a 
tambourine. 

All  of  a  sudden  the  medium,  leaving  M.  Mathieu, 
stretches  her  hand  above  the  table  toward  M.  Jules  Bois,  who 
takes  it.  At  this  moment,  behind  the  curtain,  an  object  falls 
to  the  floor  with  a  great  noise. 

10.35.  Eusapia,  again  freeing  her  right  hand,  lifts  it  up 
above  her  left  shoulder,  the  fingers  forward,  at  a  distance 
of  several  inches  from  the  curtain,  and  beats  four  or  five 
strokes  in  the  air  which  are  heard  to  sound  in  the  tambourine. 
Several  persons  think  they  see  a  will-o'-the-wisp  through  the 
gap  between  the  curtains. 

Up  to  that  point  the  gas  has  been  gradually  lowered. 
After  the  lapse  of  a  full  moment  I  fiind  that  I  can  no  longer 


106  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

read,  but  I  can  distinguish  very  clearly  the  horizontal 
lines  of  my  writing.  I  can  see  the  hour  perfectly  by  my 
watch,  as  well  as  the  faces  of  those  present,  (that,  of  Eusapia 
especially)  turned  toward  the  light.  The  gas  is  now  com- 
pletely extinguished. 

At  10.40,  the  gas  being  out,  I  can  still  read  my  watch, 
but  with  difficulty;  I  still  see  the  lines  of  my  writing, 
though  without  being  able  to  read. 

Eusapia  wants  somebody  to  hold  her  head,  which  is  done. 
Then  she  asks  somebody  to  hold  her  feet.  M.  Baschet  gets 
do^\^l  on  his  knees  under  the  table  and  holds  them. 

M.  Antoniadi  cries,  ''  I  am  touched !  "  and  says  that  he  has 
felt  a  hand.  I  have  very  distinctly  seen  the  curtain  puff- 
ing out.  Mme.  Elammarion,  whom  I  see  silhouetted  on 
the  bright  glass  of  the  window,  her  head  leaning  forward, 
goes  behind  the  curtain  in  order  to  assure  herself  that  the 
medium  is  not  doing  anything  suspicious  in  the  way  of  mo- 
tions. 

One  of  the  persons  present  having  changed  places,  Eusapia 
utters  complaints:  ''La  catena!  la  catena!"  (*' The 
chain!  the  chain!  ")      The  chain  is  re-established. 

At  10.45  the  curtain  is  inflated  again.  A  bump  is  heard. 
The  round  table  touches  the  elbow  of  M.  Antoniadi.  Mme. 
Elammarion,  who  has  kept  looking  behind  the  curtain,  says 
that  she  sees  the  round  table  turned  over.  Its  feet  are  in  the 
air,  and  it  is  moving  to  and  fro.  She  thinks  she  sees  glim- 
mers of  light  near  the  floor. 

]\L  ]\Iathieu  feels  a  hand  and  an  arm  pushing  the  cur- 
tain against  him.  M.  Antoniadi  says  that  he  is  touched 
by  a  cushion;  his  chair  is  pulled  and  turns  under  him  as  if 
on  a  pivot.  He  is  touched  again  on  the  elbow  by  some  ob- 
ject. 

It  is  ascertained  that  M.  Jules  Bois  is  holding  Eusapia's 
right  hand  above  the  table ;  M.  Antoniadi  assures  us  that  he 
is  holding  lier  left  hand,  and  M.  Mathieu  her  feet. 

The  curtain  is  again  shaken  twice;  M.  Antoniadi  is  hit 
in  the  back  very  hard,  he  says,  and  a  hand  pulls  his  hair. 
The  only  light  remaining  is  the  little  lamp  with  a  shade,  be- 
hind an  easy-chair  at  the  farther  end  of  the  salon.  I  con- 
tinue to  write,  but  my  strokes  take  all  kinds  of  shapes. 


MY  EXPERIMEXTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       lOY 

Suddenly,  M.  Antoniadi  exclaims  that  he  is  enveloped  by 
the  curtain,  which  rests  upon  his  shoulders.  Eusapia  cries, 
"  What  is  this  that  is  passing  over  me  ?  "  The  round  table 
comes  forth  beneath  the  curtain.  j\Ime.  Elammarion,  who 
is  standing  opposite  the  window,  and  has  kept  looking  be- 
hind the  curtain,  says  that  she  sees  some  very  white  object. 
At  the  same  moment  M.  Flammarion,  Mme.  Eourton,  and 
M.  Jules  Bois  exclaim  that  they  have  just  seen  a  white  hand 
between  the  curtains,  above  Eusapia's  head;  and,  at  the 
same  moment,  M.  Mathieu  says  that  his  hair  is  being  pulled. 
The  hand  we  saw  seemed  small,  like  that  of  a  woman  or  of 
a  child. 

''  If  there  is  a  hand  there,"  says  M.  Flammarion,  ^^  could 
it  perhaps  grasp  an  object  ?  "  M.  Jules  Bois  holds  a  book 
out  toward  the  middle  of  the  right-hand  curtain.  The  book 
is  taken  and  held  two  seconds.  Mme.  Flammarion,  whom 
I  see  always  silhouetted  upon  the  bright  glass  of  the  win- 
dow, and  who  is  looking  behind  the  curtain,  cries  that  she 
has  seen  the  hook  pass  through, 

M.  F.  proposes  to  light  up  and  verify.  But  everybody 
agrees  in  thinking  that  the  curtain  may  have  already  changed 
its  position.  A  moment  afterwards  the  curtain  is  again 
puffed  out,  and  M.  Antoniadi  says  that  he  is  hit  four  or 
-^Ye  times  on  the  shoulder.  Eusapia  has  asked  him  more 
than  ten  times  whether  he  is  quite  ^'  seguro  "  (sure)  that 
he  has  hold  of  her  hand  and  her  foot. 

"Yes,  yes,"  he  replies,  ''seguro,  segurissiino ''  ("sure, 
quite  sure  "). 

Mme.  Fourton  says  that  for  the  second  time  she  has  seen 
a  hand  stretched  out  and  that  this  time  it  touched  the 
shoulder  of  M.  Antoniadi.  M.  Jules  Bois  says  that  for  the 
second  time  he  has  seen  a  hand  stretched  out  at  the  end  of  a 
small  arm,  the  fingers  moving,  the  palm  forward.  (It  is 
impossible  to  decide  whether  these  two  visions  were  simul- 
taneous or  not.) 

We  are  getting  accustomed  to  the  almost  complete  dark- 
ness; I  can  still  read  ''  11.15  "  by  my  watch.  M.  Antoniadi 
says  his  ear  is  pinched  very  hard.  M.  Mathieu  says  he  is 
touched.     M.  Antoniadi  feels  his  chair  pulled:  it  falls  to 


108  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

the  floor.  He  lifts  it  again  and  seats  himself  on  it,  and  is 
again  hit  very  hard  on  the  shoulder. 

About  11.20,  at  the  request  of  Eusapia,  M.  Elammarion 
replaces  M.  Mathieu.  He  holds  her  two  feet  and  one  hand ; 
M.  Antoniadi  holds  the  other  hand.  The  lamp  is  lowered 
still  more.  The  darkness  is  almost  complete.  M.  Elam- 
marion, having  remarked  that  an  unkno\vn  physical  force  is 
evidently  present,  but  perhaps  not  an  individual  personality, 
feels  his  hand  seized  all  of  a  sudden  by  some  one  (or  some 
thing),  and  is  interrupted.  Then,  a  little  after,  he  com- 
plains that  his  beard  is  being  pulled  (on  the  side  opposite 
the  medium,  where  I  am.     I  did  not  perceive  anything). 

At  11.30  the  lamp  is  turned  up.  It  is  comparatively 
bright  in  the  room.  The  curtain,  after  all  these  movements, 
is  seen  to  be  more  and  more  pushed  aside,  enveloping  the 
head  of  Eusapia.  Suddenly,  above  her  head,  we  all  see  the 
tambourine  slowly  appear  and  fall  upon  the  table  with  a 
noise  like  that  of  sheep-bells.  It  seems  to  me  brighter  than 
the  feeble  glimmer  of  the  concealed  lamp  would  justify  and 
as  if  accompanied  by  white  phosphorescent  gleams ;  but  they 
are  perhaps  flashes  of  light  from  its  gilded  ornaments, 
Avhich,  however,  ought  to  appear  yellower. 

Wlien  the  lamp  is  turned  down,  the  noise  of  moving  fur- 
niture is  heard ;  the  round  table  is  fetched  clear  up  onto  the 
top  of  the  large  table.  It  is  removed,  and  the  tambourine 
executes  a  dance  all  alone  with  a  peculiar  sound  like  the 
ringing  of  bells.  Mme.  Eourton  says  that  she  has  had  her 
hand  pressed  and  her  fore-arm  pinched. 

At  11.45  the  window  curtain  is  closed  in  its  turn;  and, 
after  a  moment,  we  all  see  in  the  direction  in  which  the  cleft 
in  the  corner  curtain  ought  to  be,  above  Eusapia's  head,  a 
large  white  star  of  the  color  of  Vega,  though  larger  and  of  a 
softer  light,  and  which  rests  motionless  for  some  seconds, 
then  is  extinguished.  Shortly  after,  a  zigzag  glimmer  of 
light,  of  the  same  white  color,  runs  over  the  right-hand  cur- 
tain, tracing  two  or  three  upright  lines  of  several  inches  in 
length,  like  an  N  very  much  elongated. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  night  has  fallen,  there  is  still  suf- 
ficient light  entering  by  the  two  uncurtained  windows,  and 
proceeding  from  the  vague  glimmer  of  the  lamp  behind  the 


MY  EXPEKIME]S[TS  WITH  EUSAPIA        109 

easj-chair,  to  enable  each  one  of  ns  to  distingnisli  liis  neigh- 
bors. Our  silhouettes  are  outlined  in  the  large  mirror  near 
us  and  above  the  sofa.  The  white  collars  of  the  men  are 
clearly  seen,  their  faces  a  little  less  clearly.  Yet  on  my  left 
I  see  very  plainly  M.  Baschet,  on  my  right  Mme.  Brisson, 
standing  and  holding  her  hand  up  to  her  face  to  shield  the 
eyes.  I  also  distinguish  Mme.  Elammarion,  who  has  come 
and  seated  herself  near  her. 

M.  Elammarion  feels  an  object  gliding  over  his  hair.  He 
begs  Mme.  de  Labadye  to  take  hold  of  it;  and  a  music-box 
falls  into  his  hands,  which,  before  the  seance,  was  placed 
upon  the  ogee,  in  the  corner  concealed  by  the  curtain.  M. 
Brisson  has  taken  the  place  at  the  table  formerly  occupied 
by  M.  Elammarion,  facing  Eusapia.  A  cushion  hits  him 
full  in  the  face.  As  I  am  approaching  the  mirror,  I  see  the 
reflection  of  this  passing  cushion  by  the  comparatively  bright 
light  at  the  far  end  of  the  room. 

M.  Baschet  seizes  the  object  and  rests  his  elbow  upon  it. 
It  is  snatched  from  him,  flies  over  our  heads,  hits  the  mirror, 
falls  upon  the  sofa,  and  rolls  upon  my  foot.  All  this  with- 
out my  being  able  to  perceive  any  movement  on  the  part  of 
the  medium. 

Midnight  draws  near.     The  seance  is  adjourned. 

MM.  Antoniadi  and  Mathieu  then  declare  that  the  control 
with  which  they  were  charged  has  not  been  successful,  and 
that  they  are  not  sure  that  they  have  always  had  hold  of  the 
medium's  hands. 


Report  of  M.  Antoniadi 

{The  Same  Seance) 

I  shall  give  you  an  exact  account  of  the  role  I  played, 
that  I  may  gi*atify  your  desire  to  know  the  truth. 

I  restricted  myself  to  ascertaining  whether  there  was  a 
single  'phenomenon  which  could  not  be  explained  in  the  most 
simple  manner,  and  I  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  there 
was  not.  I  assure  you,  on  my  word  of  honor,  that  my  watch- 
ful,  silent   attitude    convinced  me,   beyond   all   manner  of 


110  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

doubt,  that  everything  is  fraudulent,  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end;  that  there  is  no  doubt  that  Eusapia  shifts  her 
hands  or  her  feet,  and  that  the  hand  or  the  foot  that  one  is 
thought  to  control  is  never  held  tight  or  very  strongly  pressed 
at  the  moment  of  the  production  of  the  phenomena.  My  cer- 
tain conclusion  is  that  nothing  is  produced  without  the  sub- 
stitution of  hands.  I  ought  to  add  that,  at  first,  I  was  very 
much  astonished  when  I  was  hit  hard  in  the  back,  from  be- 
hind the  curtain,  while  I  was  very  clearly  holding  two  hands 
with  my  right  hand.  Happily,  however,  at  this  moment, 
Mme.  Flammarion  having  given  us  a  little  light,  I  saw  that 
I  held  the  right  hand  of  Eusapia  and  —  yours ! 

The  substitution  is  made  by  Eusapia  with  extraordinary 
dexterity.  In  order  to  ascertain  it,  I  was  obliged  to  con- 
centrate my  mind  upon  her  very  slightest  movements  with 
the  severest  attention.  But  it  is  the  first  step  that  costs; 
and,  once  familiarized  with  her  artifices,  I  predicted  with 
decision  all  the  phenomena  by  the  sensation  of  touch  alone. 

Being  a  good  observer,  I  am  absolutely  certain  that  I 
was  not  deceived.  I  was  neither  hypnotized,  nor  was  I  at 
all  friglitened  during  the  "  bringing  in  "  of  objects.  And, 
as  I  am  not  a  lunatic,  I  believe  that  a  certain  weight 
should  be  given  to  my  afiirmations. 

It  is  true  that,  during  the  seance,  I  was  not  sincere,  dis- 
guising the  truth  of  the  efiicacy  of  my  control.  I  did  that 
with  the  sole  purpose  of  making  Eusapia  think  that  I  was 
a  convert  to  Spiritualism.  I  did  this  to  avoid  scandal.  But, 
once  the  sitting  was  over,  the  Truth  choked  me,  and  I  was 
most  eager  to  communicate  it  to  my  great  benefactor  and 
official  superior. 

It  is  not  prudent  to  be  too  affirmative.  It  is  for  that 
reason  that  I  have  always  been  reserved  in  my  interpretation 
of  natural  phenomena.  Consequently,  I  am  unable  to  be  so 
terribly  affirmative  as  to  take  oath  to  the  absolute  charlatan- 
ism of  the  manifestations  of  Eusapia,  before,  as  Shake- 
speare says,  I  have  "  rendered  assurance  doubly  sure." 

I  have  no  personal  ambition  in  the  spiritistic  line,  and  all 
the  careful  observations  that  I  made  during  this  seance  of 
November  21  are  only  one  stone  the  more  contributed  to  the 
edifice  of  Truth. 


MY  EXPEKIMEXTS  WITH  EUSAPIA        111 

It  is  not  on  account  of  prejudice  that  I  do  not  believe  in 
the  reality  of  the  manifestations,  and  I  can  assure  you,  if  I 
were  able  to  see  the  least  phenomenon  that  was  really  extraor- 
dinary or  inexplicable,  I  should  be  the  first  to  confess  my 
error. 

The  reading  of  several  books  has  led  me  to  admit  the  pos- 
sible reality  of  these  manifestations,  but  direct  experience 
has  convinced  me  of  the  contrary. 

My  frankness  in  this  report  unhappily  borders  upon  indis- 
cretion. But  frankness  is  here  synonymous  with  devotion, 
for  it  would  be  to  betray  you  if  I  were  false  for  an  instant 
to  the  sacred  cause  of  Truth. 


Report  of  M.  Mathieu. 

(Seance  of  November  25) 

The  seance  opens  at  9.30.  M.  Brisson,  controller  on  the 
left,  puts  his  feet  on  Eusapia's  feet;  M.  Flammarion,  con- 
troller on  the  right,  holds  her  knees.  In  a  moment  the  table 
leans  to  the  right,  its  two  left  feet  are  lifted  and  then  it  falls 
back;  then  follows  the  lifting  of  the  two  right  feet,  and 
finally  the  lifting  of  the  whole  table  off  of  its  four  feet  to  a 
height  of  about  seven  inches  above  the  floor  (contact  of  feet 
certain  and  knees  motionless).     I  take  a  photograph. 

At  9.37  a  slight  lifting  on  the  left ;  then  a  lifting  on  the 
right,  and  a  total  levitation  (photograph). 

During  the  levitations  of  tlie  table  the  salon  is  lighted  by 
a  strong  Auer  burner.  It  is  now  extinguished  and  is  re- 
placed by  a  little  lamp  which  is  placed  behind  a  fire-screen 
at  the  farther  end  of  the  room.  Absolute  control  of  the 
hands  and  of  the  feet  made  by  MM.  Brisson  and  Flam- 
marion. 

M.  Brisson  is  slightly  touched  on  the  right  hip,  and  at  this 
moment  the  two  hands  of  Eusapia  are  plainly  seen. 

At  9.48  the  curtain  shakes  and  then  puffs  out  three  times 
in  succession.  M.  Brisson  is  again  touched  on  the  right 
hip ;  the  curtain  is  drawn  back  as  if  by  a  curtain-band.  M. 
Flammarion,  who  holds  Eusapia's  hand,  makes  three  ges- 


112  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

tures  and  to  each  of  his  gestures  corresponds  a  new  diver- 
gence of  the  portiere.  Eiisapia  recommends  that  we  "  give 
attention  to  the  temperature  of  the  medium ;  it  will  be  found 
to  be  changed  after  each  phenomenon." 

At  9.57  the  light  is  diminished  and  is  henceforth  very 
feeble.  The  curtain  bellies  out,  and  at  the  same  moment 
M.  Brisson  is  touched;  then  the  curtain  is  flung  forcefully 
over  the  table.  At  the  request  of  Eusapia,  M.  Delanne 
lightly  touches  her  head  behind,  and  the  curtain  slightly 
trembles. 

Eusapia  asks  that  a  window  be  partly  opened,  the  one  in 
the  middle  of  the  salon,  saying  that  we  shall  see  something 
new.  M.  Elammarion  holds  with  his  left  hand  the  knees 
of  the  medium,  and  with  his  right  hand  holds  the  wrist, 
the  thumb,  and  the  palm  of  her  right  hand  before  him  at  the 
height  of  the  eyes.  M.  Brisson  holds  the  left  hand.  Eu- 
sapia seems  to  call  something  from  the  direction  of  the  win- 
dow, making  gestures,  and  saying,  '^  I  will  catch  it."  Then 
a  little  branch  of  privet  comes  and  touches  M.  Flammarion's 
hand,  apparently  arriving  from  somewhere  near  the  window. 
M.  F.  takes  this  branch.  A  moment  later  two  spindle-treo 
branches  come  from  behind  the  curtain  at  the  height  of  M. 
Brisson's  head  and  past  the  edge  of  the  curtain,  which  is 
pulled  up  and  back.     The  branches  fall  on  the  table. 

M.  Brisson,  all  this  time  at  Eusapia's  left,  is  next  touched 
on  the  hip,  at  a  moment  ivhen  the  hand  of  the  medium  is 
at  the  height  of  M,  Flammarions  heard.  Then  the  chair  of 
M.  Brisson  is  pulled  and  pushed  about.  We  hear  distinctly, 
behind  the  curtain,  sounds  from  the  shaking  of  the  round 
table,  upon  which  is  the  tambourine.  Certain  vibrations  of 
the  tambourine  are  produced,  corresponding  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  round  table.  At  this  moment  M.  Brisson  men- 
tions the  fact  that  he  has  been  out  of  touch  with  the  foot  of 
the  medium  for  about  half  a  second,  but  he  is  then  holding 
her  two  thumbs  about  ten  inches  apart,  and  l^[.  Fhimmarion 
has  her  right  hand  close  to  his  breast.  The  right  hand  of  M. 
Brisson,  holding  the  left  of  Eusapia,  passes  behind  the  cur- 
tain, and  !M.  l^risson  says  that  he  has  the  impression  of  some- 
thing like  a  dress-skirt  puffed  out  against  his  ankle. 

Thereupon  ensues  new  jolting  and  bimiping  of  the  round 


1 


MY  EXPEEIME:^TS  with  EUSAPIA       113 

table  and  the  tambourine,  with  displacement  of  the  round 
table.  (Undoubted  control  by  MM.  Flammarion  and  Bris- 
son.) 

10.30.  Clattering  noises  of  the  round  table  in  the  cabi- 
net are  heard.  M.  Flammarion  makes  gestures  with  his 
hand,  and  synchronistic  movements  of  the  table  and  of  the 
tambourine  take  place  in  the  dark  cabinet. 

10.35.  Eusapia  asks  for  a  few  minutes'  rest.  The  sitting 
is  resumed  at  10.43.  The  violin  and  the  bell  are  hurled 
with  force  through  the  cleft  in  the  curtain  (M.  Brisson  gives 
assurance  that  he  holds  Eusapia's  left  hand  by  the  thumb, 
upon  her  knees,  and  M.  Flammarion  the  entire  right  hand). 
At  this  moment  a  photograph  is  taken  by  flash-light.  Cries 
and  groans  from  Eusapia,  blinded  by  the  light. 

The  sitting  begins  again  some  minutes  afterward,  and  M. 
Jules  Claretie,  sitting  at  the  left  of  M.  Brisson,  has  his  fin- 
gers twice  touched  by  a  hand.  M.  Baschet,  who  is  standing 
away  from  the  table,  holds  out  a  violin  to  the  curtain:  the 
violin  is  seized  and  thrown  into  the  cabinet.  He  holds  a 
book  out  to  the  curtain:  this  book  is  seized,  but  falls  to  the 
floor,  before  the  curtain. 

M.  Claretie  presents  a  cigarette-holder  and  feels  a  hand 
which  tries  to  seize  it,  but  he  resists  and  will  not  let  it  go. 
M.  Flammarion  asks  him  to  let  go  of  the  object:  the  hand 
bears  off  the  prize.  A  moment  after,  this  object  is  thrown 
from  the  cleft  between  the  two  curtains  against  Mme.  de 
Basilewska  at  the  other  end  of  the  table.  It  had  been  both 
presented  and  removed  at  the  middle  of  the  curtain. 

At  eleven  o'clock  Eusapia  begs  for  a  little  more  light.  M. 
Claretie  has  become  controller  of  the  left  in  place  of  M. 
Brisson.  He  is  touched  on  the  left  side.  Then  the  round 
table  is  overturned  while  advancing  toward  the  main  table. 
M.  Claretie  perceives  that  his  chair  is  moving  backwards, 
as  if  pulled  back ;  then  he  is  hit  on  the  shoulder  and  experi- 
ences a  strong  pressure  under  the  ann-pit.  The  curtain  sud- 
denly approaches  M.  Claretie,  brushes  against  him,  and  en- 
velops both  himself  and  the  medium.  M.  Claretie  is  then 
pinched  in  the  cheek.  M.  Flammarion  presents  to  the  cur- 
tain the  hand  of  Mme.  Fourton,  and  the  two  hands  are 
pinched  through  the  curtain. 


114  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

The  music-box,  which  is  in  the  dark  cabinet,  falls  on  the 
table ;  Mmes.  Gagneur  and  Elammarion  at  the  same  moment 
make  mention  of  a  hand.  M.  Baschet  presents  the  music- 
box  to  the  curtain ;  a  hand  seizes  it  through  the  curtain,  he 
resists,  the  hand  pushes  him  away;  he  presents  it  again, 
the  hand  seizes  it  and  throws  it  back,  and  the  box  thus 
thrown  wounds  M.  Claretie,  who  is  struck  beneath  the  left 
eye.  The  tambourine  is  thrown  forward  upon  the  table 
after  having  remained  suspended  a  moment  above  the  head 
of  the  medium. 

At  11.15  a  complete  levitation  of  the  table  for  seven  or 
eight  seconds.  Absolute  control  by  MM.  Elammarion  and 
Claretie.  M.  Elammarion  has  his  knee  pinched  by  a  hand. 
Kext  the  round  table  is  transferred  to  the  knees  of  M. 
Claretie  and  is  forced  upon  him  in  spite  of  all  his  resist- 
ance. Levitations  of  the  table  take  place  in  full  light. 
Verification  of  the  feet  The  feet  of  one  of  the  controllers 
are  beneath,  those  of  the  other  above,  and  those  of  the 
medium  between  the  two. 


Report  of  M.  Pallotti 

(Seance  of  November  IJf) 

(There  are  present  at  this  stance,  besides  the  hosts  of  the  evening: 
M.  and  Mnie.  Brisson,  M.  and  Mme.  Pallotti,  M.  le  Bocain,  M.  Bou- 
tigny,  Mme.  Fourton.) 

At  the  commencement  of  the  sitting  several  levitations  of 
the  table  took  place,  and,  when  I  asked  the  spirit  who  was 
present  if  he  could  let  me  see  my  daughter  Rosalie,  I  ob- 
tained an  affirmative  reply.  I  then  made  an  agreement  with 
the  said  spirit  that  a  series  of  eight  regular  raps  would  indi- 
cate to  me  the  moment  when  my  dear  daughter  would  be 
present.  After  some  minutes  of  waiting,  the  number  of 
raps  agreed  on  was  heard  in  the  table.  These  raps  were 
vigorous  and  made  at  fixed  intervals. 

1  found,  at  this  time,  that  I  was  placed  opposite  to  the 
medium, —  that  is  to  say,  facing  her, —  at  the  other  end  of 
the   table.     When    I    asked   the   spirit   to   embrace   me   and 


hi 


MY  EXPERIMEXTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       115 

caress  me,  I  immediately  felt  an  icy  breatli  before  my  face, 
but  yet  without  experiencing  the  least  sensation  of  contact. 

When  the  medium  announced  the  materialization  of  the 
spirit  in  these  words,  ''  E  venuta,  e  venuta"  (''  She  is  here, 
she  is  here"),  I  distinguished  over  the  middle  of  the  table 
a  spectral  form,  dim  and  confused,  but  which,  little  by  little, 
grew  brighter,  and  took  the  shape  of  the  head  of  a  young 
girl  of  the  same  stature  as  Rosalie. 

When  objects,  such  as  the  music-box,  violin,  or  the  like, 
were  unexpectedly  brought  before  us,  I  saw  very  plainly  the 
shape  of  a  little  hand  emerging  from  the  curtain  that  hung 
close  by  me,  and  which  placed  these  different  objects  upon 
the  table. 

I  ought  to  declare  that,  during  these  inexplicable  phe- 
nomena, the  chain  was  not  broken  for  a  single  moment;  it 
w^ould  consequently  have  been  materially  impossible  for  one 
of  us  to  have  made  use  of  his  hands. 

I  will  now  describe  the  last  phenomena  in  which  I  was 
for  a  little  while  both  actor  and  spectator.  These  events 
closed  the  seance. 

One  of  the  company,  M.  Boutigny,  who  was  affianced  to 
my  daughter,  having  left  the  table  to  give  his  place  to  one 
of  the  spectators,  I  saw  him  approach  the  curtain  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  which  at  once  gaped  open  by  his  side.  I  as- 
certained this  fact  very  precisely. 

M.  Boutigny  then  announced  to  us  aloud  that  he  was 
being  very  affectionately  caressed.  The  medium,  who  was 
at  this  moment  in  an  extraordinary  state  of  agitation,  kept 
saying,  ''  Amove  mio^  amove  mio!  "  (''  My  love,  my  love !  "), 
and,  addressing  herself  to  me,  called  to  me  several  times  in 
the  following  words,  ''  Adesso  vieni  tu!  vieni  tu!"  {^'  Come 
at  once,  come! '') 

I  hastened  to  take  the  place  which  M.  Boutigny  occupied 
near  the  curtain,  and  I  was  scarcely  there  when  I  felt  my- 
self kissed  several  times.  I  was  able  for  an  instant  to 
touch  the  head  w^hich  was  kissing  me,  which,  however,  drew 
back  from  the  contact  of  my  hands. 

I  ought  to  say  that,  while  these  events  were  taking  place, 
my  eyes  were  carefully  observing  the  medium  as  well  as  the 
persons  who  were  by  my  side.     I  can  therefore,  boldly  car- 


116  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  TOECES 

tif J  that  I  was  not  the  victim  of  any  illusion  or  subterfuge, 
and  that  the  head  which  I  touched  was  the  head  of  a  real  and 
unknown  person.  I  felt  myself  afterwards  gently  stroked 
several  times,  upon  the  face  and  head,  tlie  neck  and  the 
breast,  by  a  hand  which  came  out  from  behind  the  curtain. 
At  last  I  saw  the  portiere  move  aside  and  a  little  hand,  very 
moist,  very  soft,  stretched  out  and  placed  on  my  right  hand. 
Quick  as  thought,  I  reached  my  left  hand  to  this  place  to 
seize  it ;  but,  after  having  held  it  closely  pressed  in  mine  for 
several  seconds,  it  seemed  to  melt  away  between  my  fingers. 

Before  closing,  let  me  say,  by  way  of  additional  authenti- 
cation, that  II.  Elammarion  had  the  extreme  kindness  to  have 
this  seance  given  for  my  family  and  myself,  and  it  therefore 
took  on  a  very  markedly  private  character. 

The  seance  having  lasted  from  9.20  to  11.45  p.m.,  we  sev- 
eral times  asked  the  medium  if  she  felt  fatigued.  Eu- 
sapia  said  no.  It  was  only  when  the  last  experiment  took 
place,  when  we  (myself  and  my  family)  had  been  caressed 
and  embraced,  that  the  medium,  feeling  tired,  decided  to 
end  the  sitting. 

My  wife  is  convinced,  as  I  am,  that  she  embraced  her 
daughter,  recognizing  her  hair  and  the  general  appearance  of 
her  person. 

Report  of  M.  Le  Bocain 

{The  Same  Seance) 

The  following  are  some  extraordinary  phenomena  which 
I  observed  duriug  the  course  of  this  seance  and  of  which 
I  believe  I  can  give  a  report  as  exact  as  it  is  impartial,  hav- 
ing personally  taken  the  most  minute  precautions  to  assure 
myself  of  the  perfect  fairness  of  the  conditions  under  which 
these  different  Avonders  were  produced. 

I  only  speak,  be  it  understood,  of  circumstances  or  ac- 
tions with  which  I  myself  was  associated  both  as  actor  and 
as  spectator. 

1.  At  the  opcniug  of  the  sitting  and  during  the  time  that 
the  table  was  engaged  in  all  sorts  of  noisy  pranks,  I  clearly 
felt  the  pressure  of  a  hand  clasping  me  in  a  friendly  way 


MY  EXPERIME:NTS  with  EUSAPIA       117 

•upon  the  right  shoulder.     In  order  to  make  the  matters  clear, 
I  ought  to  depose  that  — 

a)  I  sat  at  the  left  of  the  medium  and  held  her  hand; 
that,  furthermore,  during  the  whole  sitting  her  foot  was 
placed  on  mine. 

b)  That,  with  Eusapia's  hand  always  tightly  pressed  in 
mine,  I  proved,  by  suddenly  placing  it  upon  her.  knees,  at 
the  very  moment  that  the  table  was  rising  from  beside  us, 
that  her  lower  limbs  were  in  a  normal  position  and  abso- 
lutely motionless. 

c)  For  these  different  reasons,  it  seems  to  me,  in  fact, 
impossible  that  Eusapia  could  have  made  any  use  whatever 
of  these  two  limbs  (which  happened  to  be  placed  by  me)  to 
execute  a  movement,  even  unconscious,  that  could  give  rise 
to  the  least  suspicion. 

2.  At  a  certain  point  in  the  proceedings  I  felt  on  my 
right  cheek  the  sensation  of  a  fondling  caress.  I  felt  very 
distinctly  that  it  was  a  real  hand  which  was  touching  my 
skin,  and  nothing  else.  The  hand  in  question  seemed  to  me 
of  small  size,  and  the  skin  was  soft  and  moist. 

3.  Towards  the  end  of  the  seance  I  felt  upon  my  back 
a  gust  of  cold  air,  and  at  the  same  time  I  heard  the  curtain 
behind  me  slowly  open. 

Then,  when  I  turned  around,  very  much  puzzled,  I  per- 
ceived standing  at  the  lower  end  of  this  kind  of  alcove  a 
form, —  indistinct,  it  is  true,  but  not  so  much  so  that  I 
could  not  recognize  the  silhouette  of  a  young  girl  whose  fig- 
ure was  slightly  beneath  the  average.  I  ought  to  say  here 
that  my  sister  Rosalie  was  also  of  short  stature.  The 
head  of  this  apparition  was  not  very  distinct.  It  seemed 
surrounded  by  a  short  of  shaded  aureole.  The  whole  form 
of  the  statue,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  stood  out  very 
little  from  the  dim  obscurity  from  which  it  had  emerged; 
that  is  to  say,  it  was  not  very  luminous. 

4.  I  addressed  myself  to  the  spirit  in  Arabic,  in  very 
nearly  the  following  terms: 

''If  it  is  really  thou,  Rosalie,  who  art  in  the  midst  of 
us,  pull  the  hair  on  the  back  of  my  head  three  times  in  suc- 
cession." 

About  ten  minutes  later,   and  when   I  had  ahnost  com- 


118  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

pletely  forgotten  my  request,  I  felt  my  hair  pulled  three 
separate  times,  just  as  I  had  desired.  I  certify  this  fact, 
which,  besides,  formed  for  me  a  most  convincing  truth  of 
the  presence  of  a  familiar  spirit  close  about  us. 

,  Le  Bocaiis-,  Illustrator,     ' 

Bire,  Pele-Mele,  Chronique  Amusantej  etc. 

I  have  restricted  myself  to  presenting  here  these  different 
reports,*  in  spite  of  certain  contradictions,  and  even  because 
of  them.  The  reports  mutually  supplement  each  other 
and  form  a  complete  whole,  through  the  entire  independ- 
ence of  each  observer. 

You  see  how  complex  the  subject  is,  and  how  difficult  it 
is  to  form  a  radical  conviction,  an  absolute  scientific  judg- 
ment. Some  phenomena  are  incontestably  true:  there  are 
others  which  are  doubtful  and  which  w^e  may  attribute  to 
fraud,  conscious  or  unconscious,  and  sometimes  also  to 
illusions  of  the  observers.  The  levitation  of  the  table,  for 
example,  its  complete  detachment  from  the  floor  under  the 
action  of  an  unknown  force  acting  in  opposition  to  the  law 
of  gravity,  is  a  fact  which  cannot  reasonably  be  contested. 

I  may  remark,  in  this  connection,  that  the  table  almost 
always  rises  hesitatingly,  after  balancings  and  oscillations, 
while,  on  the  contrary,  when  it  falls  back  it  goes  straight 
down  at  one  swoop,  alighting  squarely  on  its  four  feet.f 

*  To  these  eight  stances  I  might  add  a  ninth,  which  took  place  on  the 
succeeding  December  5^  in  the  study  of  Prof.  Richet.  Nothing  remark- 
able occurred,  unless  it  was  the  inflation,  in  full  light,  of  a  window 
curtain,  which  was  about  twenty-four  inches  from  Eusapia's  foot,  my 
foot  and  leg  being  between  it  and  her.  The  observation  was  absolutely- 
accurate. 

t  To  what  cause  may  we  attribute  the  levitation  of  the  table?  We 
have  undoubtedly  not  yet  discovered  the  secret.  The  action  of  gravity 
may  be  counterbalanced  by  movement. 

You  can  amuse  yourself,  while  at  breakfast  or  dinner,  by  toying 
with  a  knife.  If  you  hold  it  vertically  in  your  tightly  closed  hand, 
its  weight  is  counterbalanced  by  tlie  pressure  of  the  hand  and  it  does 
not  fall.  Open  your  hand,  still  holding  the  knife  grasped  by  the 
thumb  and  index  linger,  and  it  will  slide  as  if  it  were  in  a  too  large 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       119 

On  the  other  hand,  since  the  medium  constantly  seeks  to 
release  one  hand  (generally  her  left  hand)  from  the  control 
designed  to  hinder  her  from  doing  so,  a  certain  number  of  the 
touches  felt  and  of  the  displacements  of  objects  may  be  due 
to  a  substitution  of  hands.  This  behavior  of  hers  will  be 
the  subject  of  a  special  examination  in  the  following  chapter. 

But  it  would  be  impossible  by  the  whole  force  of  the  hand 
to  produce  the  violent  movement  of  the  curtain,  which  seems 
to  be  inflated  by  a  tempestuous  wind,  and  projected  to  the 
very  centre  of  the  table,  forming  a  great  hood  around  the 
heads  of  the  sitters.  To  fling  out  the  curtain  with  such 
force,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  medium  to  rise  and  push 
on  it  as  hard  as  she  could  with  her  extended  anus  —  not 
once  merely,  but  again  and  again.  But  how  can  she  do  this 
when  she  is  all  the  while  seated  tranquilly  in  her  chair  ? 

These  experiments  place  us  in  a  special  environment  or 
atmosphere,  on  the  different  physical  and  psychical  charac- 
ters of  which  it  is  difficult  to  form  an  opinion. 

At  the  time  of  the  last  seance,  during  which  M.  and  Mme. 
Pallotti  are  sure  of  having  seen,  touched,  and  embraced  their 
daughter,  I  saw  nothing,  at  that  moment,  of  this  spectral 
form,  although  it  was  only  a  few  yards  from  me,  and  al- 
though I  had  perceived,  some  moments  before,  the  head  of  a 
young  girl.  It  is  true  that,  out  of  respect  for  their  emotion, 
I  did  not  approach  their  group.  But  I  kept  careful  watch, 
and  I  perceived  no  one  but  the  living. 

tube.  But  move  the  hand  by  a  rapid  see-saw  movement,  from  left  to 
right,  from  right  to  left:  you  will  thus  create  a  centrifugal  force 
which  holds  the  object  in  vertical  suspension,  and  which  may  even  toss 
it  above  your  hand  and  project  it  into  the  air,  if  the  movement  is 
rapid  enough. 

What,  then,  sustains  the  knife,  annihilates  its  weight?  Force. 
Alight  it  not  be  that  the  influence  of  the  experimenters  seated  around 
the  table  puts  in  special  movement  the  molecules  of  the  wood?  They 
are  already  set  in  vibration  by  variations  of  temperature.  These  mole- 
cules are  particles  infinitely  small  which  do  not  touch  each  other. 
Might  not  a  molecular  movement  counterbalance  the  effect  of  gravity? 
I  do  not  present  this  as  an  explanation,  but  as  an  illustrative  suggestion 
{comme  une  image). 


120  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

At  the  seance  of  N'ovember  10  the  noise  of  a  sonorous 
object  notified  ns  of  a  displacement,  a  movement.  We  seem 
to  hear  the  violin  strings  lightly  touched.  It  is,  in  fact,  the 
little  violin  on  the  round  table,  which  is  lifted  to  a  height 
somewhat  above  that  of  the  head  of  the  medium,  passes  into 
the  opening  between  the  two  curtains,  and  appears  before  us 
with  the  neck  forward.  The  idea  comes  into  mj  head  to 
grasp  this  instrument  during  its  slow  passage  through  the 
air;  but  I  hesitate,  because  I  wish  to  see  what  will  become 
of  it.  It  comes  as  far  as  the  middle  of  the  table,  descends, 
then  falls,  partly  upon  the  table,  partly  upon  the  left  hand 
of  M.  Brisson  and  the  right  hand  of  Mme.  Fourton. 

That  was  one  of  the  most  accurate  observations  that  I 
made  at  this  seance.  I  did  not  let  go  of  Eusapia's  right 
hand  for  a  single  instant,  and  M.  Brisson  did  not  for  a  mo- 
ment let  go  of  her  left  hand. 

But  in  the  face  of  phenomena  so  incomprehensible  we 
always  revert  to  scepticism.  In  the  seance  of  l^ovember  19 
we  had  thoroughly  resolved  this  time  not  to  leave  any 
loophole  for  doubt  as  to  the  hands,  to  hinder  every  attempt 
at  substitution,  and  to  have  the  most  complete  control  of  each 
hand,  without  having  our  attention  withdrawn  from  this 
object  for  a  single  moment.  Eusapia  has  only  two  hands. 
She  belongs  to  the  same  zoological  species  that  we  do,  and  is 
neither  trimanous  nor  quadrumanous. 

It  was  enough,  then,  that  there  were  two  of  us ;  that  each 
one  took  a  hand  of  the  medium  and  kept  hold  of  it  between 
the  thumb  and  the  forefinger,  that  no  possible  doubt  might 
arise,  drew  in  the  elbows,  and  held  the  said  hand  as  far 
removed  as  possible  from  the  axis  of  the  medium^s  body  and 
pressed  against  our  own  person,  so  as  to  remove  the  objection 
about  the  substitution  of  liands. 

That  was  the  essential  object  of  this  seance,  as  far  as 
concerned  M.  Brisson  and  me.     He  had  charge  of  the  left 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       121 

hand.  I  had  charge  of  the  right.  I  need  not  add  that  I  am 
as  sure  of  the  loyalty  of  M.  Brisson  as  he  is  sure  of  mine, 
and  that,  forewarned  as  we  were,  and  holding  this  seance 
for  the  express  purpose  of  this  control,  we  could  neither  of 
us  be  the  dupes  of  any  attempt  at  fraud,  so  far  as  regards 
that  occasion,  at  least. 

The  famous  medium.  Home,  had  several  times  spoken  to 
me  of  a  curious  experiment  that  he  and  Crookes  made  with 
an  accordion  held  in  one  of  his  hands  and  playing  all  by 
itself,  without  the  lower  end  being  held  by  another  hand. 
Crookes  has  represented  this  experiment  by  a  sketch  in  his 
memoir  upon  this  subject.  The  medium  is  seen  holding  the 
accordion  with  one  hand  in  a  kind  of  open-work  cage,  and 
the  accordion  is  playing  by  itself.  I  shall  give  the  details  of 
this  matter  farther  on. 

I  tried  the  experiment  in  another  way,  by  holding  the 
accordion  myself,  and  not  letting  it  be  touched  by  the  me- 
dium. The  feats  which  we  had  just  witnessed,  and  which 
were  performed  while  Eusapia  had  her  hands  securely  held, 
gave  me  the  hope  of  succeeding,  so  much  the  more  because 
we  believed  that  we  had  seen  fluid  hands  in  action. 

I,  therefore,  take  a  little  new  accordion,  bought  that  even- 
ing in  a  bazaar,  and,  approaching  the  table  and  remaining  in 
a  standing  position,  I  hold  the  accordion  by  one  side,  resting 
two  fingers  upon  two  keys,  in  such  a  way  as  to  permit  the 
air  to  pass  in  case  the  instrument  should  begin  to  play. 

So  held,  it  is  vertically  suspended  by  the  stretching  out 
of  my  right  hand  to  the  height  of  my  head,  and  above 
the  head  of  the  medium.  We  make  sure  that  her  hands 
are  all  the  time  tightly  held  and  that  the  chain  is  un- 
broken. After  a  short  wait  of  five  or  six  seconds  I  feel 
the  accordion  drawn  by  its  free  end,  and  the  bellows  is  im- 
mediately pushed  in  several  times  successively;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  music  is  heard.     There  is  not  the  least  doubt 


122  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

that  a  hand,  a  pair  of  pincers,  or  what-not,  has  hold  of  the 
lower  end  of  the  instrument.  I  perceive  very  well  the  re- 
sistance of  this  prehensible  organ.  All  possibility  of  fraud 
is  eliminated;  for  the  instrument  is  well  above  Eusapia's 
head,  her  hands  are  firmly  held,  and  I  distinctly  see  the 
distention  of  the  curtain  as  far  as  the  instrument.  The  ac- 
cordion continues  to  make  itself  heard,  and  is  pulled  on 
so  strongly  that  I  say  to  the  invisible  power,  "  Well,  since 
you  have  such  a  good  hold  on  it^  keep  it ! ''  I  withdraw  my 
hand,  and  the  instrument  remains  as  if  glued  to  the  cur- 
tain. It  is  no  longer  heard.  What  has  become  of  it  ?  I 
propose  to  light  a  candle  to  hunt  for  it.  But  the  general 
opinion  is  that,  since  things  are  going  so  well,  it  is  better  to 
make  no  changes  in  the  environment.  While  we  are  talk- 
ing, the  accordion  begins  to  play, —  a  slight  and  rather  in- 
significant air.  In  order  to  do  that,  it  must  be  held  by  tvvo 
hands.  At  the  end  of  fifteen  or  twenty  seconds  it  is  brought 
to  the  middle  of  the  table  (playing  all  the  while).  The 
certainty  that  hands  are  playing  it  is  so  complete  that  I  say 
to  the  Unknown,  "Since  you  hold  the  accordion  so  well,  you 
can  doubtless  take  my  hand  itself."  I  reach  out  my  arm 
at  the  height  of  my  head,  rather  a  little  higher.  The  cur- 
tain inflates,  and  through  the  curtain  I  feel  a  hand  (a 
pretty  strong  left  hand)  ;  that  is  to  say,  three  fingers  and  the 
thumb,  and  these  grasp  the  end  of  my  right  hand. 

Let  us  suppose  for  an  instant  that  the  accordion  could 
Lave  been  pulled  by  one  of  Eusapia's  hands,  which  she  had 
released,  lifted  up,  and  screened  behind  the  curtain.  It  is 
a  very  natural  hypothesis.  Let  us  say  that  the  two  con- 
trollers on  the  right  and  on  the  left  respectively  were  cheated 
by  the  dexterity  of  the  medium.  That  is  not  impossible. 
But,  then,  that  the  instrument  might  play,  our  heroine  would 
have  had  to  release  her  two  hands  and  leave  the  two  con- 


|i 


MY  EXPERIME^^TS  WITH  EUSAPIA        123 

trollers  at  loggerheads  with  their  OTvn  hands.  It  is  some- 
thing not  to  be  thought  of. 

Apropos  of  the  existence  of  a  third  hand,  a  fluid  hand, 
created  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  with  muscles  and  bones 
(an  hypothesis  so  bold  that  one  hardly  dares  to  express  it), 
I  relate  here  what  we  observ^ed  during  the  sitting  of  'No- 
vember  19. 

M.  Guillaume  de  Fontenay,  with  whom  the  experiments 
at  Montfort-l'Amaury  were  made,  in  1897,  at  the  home  of 
the  Blech  family,  had  come  on  purpose  from  the  centre  of 
Erance,  with  a  great  profusion  of  apparatus  and  of  new 
processes,  to  try  to  get  some  photographs.  The  medium  ap- 
peared to  be  enchanted  wdth  them,  and  toward  the  middle  of 
the  soiree  said  to  us,  ''  You  are  going  to  have,  this  evening, 
something  that  you  did  not  expect,  something  which  has 
never  been  accomplished  by  any  other  medium,  and  which 
can  be  photographed  as  an  unimpeachable  record."  She 
then  explains  to  us  that  I  am  to  lift  my  hand  up,  while 
firmly  holding  hers  by  the  wrist;  that  M.  Sardou,  while 
holding  her  left  hand,  will  keep  watch  over  it  above  the 
table,  and  that  then  her  third  hand  will  appear  in  the  photo- 
graph, her  fluidic  hand,  holding  the  violin  near  her  head, 
at  some  distance  from  her  right  hand,  behind  her,  and 
against  the  curtain. 

We  wait  pretty  long  before  anything  happens.  At  length, 
the  medium  trembles,  sighs,  recommends  that  we  breathe 
deeply  and  thus  aid  her,  and  we  feel,  rather  than  see,  the 
moving  of  the  violin  through  the  air,  with  a  slight  vibrating 
noise  of  the  strings.  Eusapia  cries,  ^'  It  is  time,  take  the 
photograph,  quick,  don't  wait,  fire !  "  But  the  apparatus 
does  not  work:  the  magnesium  won't  kindle.  The  medium 
grows  impatient,  still  holds  out,  but  cries  that  she  cannot 
hold  out  much  longer.  We  all  vehemently  clamor  for  the 
photograph.      Nothing  moves.      In  the  darkness,   which  is 


124  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

needed  in  order  that  the  plate  in  the  camera  shall  not  have  to 
be  veiled,  M.  de  Fontenay  does  not  succeed  in  lighting  the 
magnesium,  and  the  violin  is  heard  to  fall  to  the  floor. 

The  medium  seems  exhausted,  groans,  laments,  and  we 
all  regret  this  check  to  the  proceedings;  but  Eusapia  de- 
clares that  she  can  begin  again,  and  asks  us  to  get  ready.  In 
fact  at  the  end  of  five  or  six  minutes  the  same  phenomena 
arc  produced.  M.  de  Fontenay  explodes  a  chlorate  of  potas- 
sium pistol.  The  light  is  instantaneous,  but  feeble.  It 
enables  us  to  see  Eusapia's  left  hand  being  held  upon  the 
table  by  M.  Sardou's  right  hand,  her  right  hand  held  in  the 
air  by  my  left  hand,  and  at  a  distance  of  about  twelve 
inches  in  the  rear,  at  the  height  of  one's  head,  the  violin, 
resting  vertically  against  the  curtain.  But  the  photograph 
gives  no  picture. 

Eusapia  now  asks  for  a  little  light  {''  poco  di  luce''). 
The  small  hand-lamp  is  lighted  again,  and  the  illumination 
is  sufiicient  for  us  to  see  each  other  distinctly,  including 
the  arms,  the  head  of  the  medium,  the  curtain,  etc.  The 
chain  is  formed  again.  The  curtain  flares  widely  out,  and 
M.  Sardou  is  several  times  touched  by  a  hand  which  gives 
him  a  good  whack  on  the  shoulder,  making  him  bend  his 
head  forward  toward  the  table.  In  the  presence  of  this 
manifestation  and  of  these  sensations  we  have  again  the 
impression  that  there  has  been  a  hand  there,  a  hand  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  medium  (which  we  continue 
carefully  to  hold), —  and  from  ours,  because  we  are  holding 
each  other's  hands  in  the  chain.  Moreover,  there  is  no  one 
near  the  curtain,  which  is  plainly  visible.  I  thereupon  re- 
mark, "  Since  there  is  a  hand  there,  let  it  take  from  me  this 
violin,  as  it  did  day  before  yesterday."  I  take  the  violin  by 
the  handle  and  hold  it  out  to  the  curtain.  It  is  at  once 
taken  and  lifted,  then  falls  to  the  floor.  I  do  not  for  a  mo- 
ment let  go  the  hand  of  the  medium.     Yet  I  grasp  this  hand 


MY  EXPEKIMEJSTTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       125 

with  my  right  hand,  for  a  moment,  in  order  to  pick  up  with 
mv  left  the  violin  that  has  fallen  near  me.  As  I  stoop 
down  to  the  floor,  I  feel  an  icy  breath  upon  my  hand,  but 
nothing  more.  I  take  the  violin  and  put  it  on  the  table; 
then  I  take  again  with  my  left  hand  the  hand  of  the  medium, 
and,  seizing  the  violin  with  my  right,  I  hold  it  out  again 
to  the  curtain.  But  Mme.  Brisson,  peculiarly  incredulous, 
asks  me  to  let  her  take  it  herself.  She  does  so,  holds  it  out 
to  the  curtain,  and  the  instrument  is  snatched  from  her,  in 
spite  of  all  the  efforts  that  she  makes  to  retain  it.  Every- 
body declares  they  saw  very  distinctly  this  time. 

The  hands  of  the  medium  have  not  been  let  go  a  single 
minute. 

It  seems  as  if  this  experiment,  made  under  these  condi- 
tions, in  sufficient  light,  ought  to  leave  no  doubt  about  the 
existence  of  a  third  hand  of  the  medium  which  acts  in  obedi- 
ence to  her  will.     And  yet !  — 

During  this  same  soiree  of  November  19  I  ask  that  the 
violin,  which  has  fallen  to  the  floor,  be  brought  again  upon 
the  table.  We  keep  holding  carefully  the  medium's  hands, 
M.  Sardou  her  left  hand  and  I  her  right.  Eusapia,  wish- 
ing to  give  still  more  security,  more  certainty,  proposes  that 
I  take  her  two  hands,  the  right  as  I  am  holding  it,  and  her 
left  wrist  in  my  right  hand,  her  left  hand  always  being  held 
by  M.  Sardou, —  the  whole  show  of  hands  taking  place  on  the 
table,  A  noise  is  heard.  The  violin  is  brought  on,  passes 
above  our  hands,  thus  criss-crossed,  and  is  laid  down,  farther 
on,  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  A  candle  is  lighted,  and  the 
position  of  our  hands  is  ascertained.  They  have  not  moved. 
Some  time  after  this  phenomena,  in  the  dim  light,  we  all 
saw  will-o'-the-wisps  shining  in  the  cabinet.  They  were 
visible  through  the  cleft  in  the  curtains,  which  at  that  time 
was  rather  wide.  Eor  my  part,  I  saw  three  of  them,  the 
first  very  brilliant,  the  others  less  intense.     They  were  not 


126  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES  i 

tremulous,  nor  did  they  stir  in  the  least,  and  remained  in 
view  scarcely  more  than  a  second. 

M.  Ajitoniadi  having  remarked  that  he  is  not  always  sure 
of  holding  her  left  hand,  Eusapia  says  to  me  in  a  flush  of 
passion,  "  Since  he  is  not  sure,  take  my  two  hands  your- 
self again."  I  already  hold  the  right,  and  am  absolutely 
certain  of  it.  I  thereupon  take  her  left  wrist  in  my  right 
hand,  M.  A.  declaring  that  he  will  take  care  of  the  fingers. 
In  this  position,  Eusapia's  two  hands  being  thus  held  above 
the  table,  a  cushion,  which  is  at  my  right  upon  the  table, 
having  been  forcibly  thrown  there  some  moments  before,  is 
seized  and  thrown  over  the  sofa,  brushing  my  forehead  on 
the  left.  Those  who  sit  at  the  table  and  form  the  chain  af- 
firm that  the  hands  of  the  chain  have  not  lost  touch  with  each 
other. 

Here  is  another  circumstance  recorded  in  the  notes  of 
Mme.  Flammarion: 

We  were  almost  in  complete  darkness, —  the  lamp,  re- 
moved as  far  as  possible  from  Eusapia,  having  only  the 
dim  glow  of  a  night-lamp.  Eusapia  was  seated  at  the  ex- 
periment table, —  between  MM.  Brisson  and  Pallotti,  who 
were  holding  her  two  hands, —  and  almost  facing  this  lamp. 

Mme.  Brisson  and  I  were  seated  some  yards  distant  from 
Eusapia,  one  of  us  on  the  side  and  the  other  in  the  middle 
of  the  salon,  Eusapia  facing  us,  while  we  had  our  backs 
turned  to  the  light.  This  allowed  us  to  distinguish  well 
enough  everything  that  passed  before  us. 

Up  to  the  moment  when  the  event  that  I  am  going  to  re- 
late took  place,  Mme.  Brisson  had  remained  almost  as  in- 
credulous as  I,  apropos  of  the  phenomena,  and  she  had  just 
been  expressing  to  me  in  a  low  tone  her  regret  at  not  having 
yet  seen  anything  herself,  when,  all  of  a  sudden,  the  curtain 
behind  Eusapia  began  to  shake  and  move  gracefully  back,  as 
if  lifted  by  an  invisible  curtain  band, —  and  what  do  I  see? 
The  little  table  on  three  feet,  and  leaping  (apparently  in 
high   spirits)   over  the  floor,  at  the  height  of  about  eight 


MY  EXPERmE:N^TS  WITH  EUSAPIA       127 

inches,  while  the  gilded  tambourine  is  in  its  turn  leaping 
gajlj  at  the  same  height  above  the  table,  and  noisily  tinkling 
its  bells. 

Stupefied  with  wonder,  quick  as  I  can  I  pull  Mme.  Bris- 
son  to  my  side,  and,  pointing  with  my  finger  at  what  is 
taking  place,  "  Look !  "  said  I. 

And  then  the  table  and  the  tambourine  begin  their  carpet- 
dance  again  in  perfect  unison,  one  of  them  falling  for- 
cibly upon  the  floor  and  the  other  upon  the  table.  Mme. 
Brisson  and  I  could  not  help  bursting  out  into  laughter ;  for, 
indeed,  it  was  too  funny!  A  sylph  could  not  have  been 
more  amusing. 


Eusapia  had  not  turned  around.  She  was  seen  seated; 
and  her  hands,  placed  before  her,  were  held  by  the  two  con- 
trollers. Even  if  she  had  been  able  to  free  both  her  hands, 
she  would  not  have  been  able  to  take  hold  of  the  round 
table  and  tambourine,  except  by  turning  around;  and  the 
two  ladies  saw  them  leaping  about  all  alone. 

I  observe  to  Eusapia  that  she  must  be  very  tired,  that  the 
seance  has  lasted  over  two  hours  and  has  yielded  extraor- 
dinary results,  and  that  it  is  perhaps  time  to  end  it.  She 
replies  that  she  desires  to  continue  still  a  little  longer,  and 
that  there  will  be  new  phenomena.  We  accept  with  pleas- 
ure, and  sit  down  and  wait. 

Then  she  lays  her  head  on  my  shoulder,  takes  my  entire 
right  arm,  including  the  hand,  and  putting  my  leg  between 
hers,  and  my  feet  between  her  feet,  she  held  me  very  tight. 
Then  she  begins  to  rub  the  carpet,  drawing  my  feet  along 
with  hers,  and  squeezing  me  tighter  than  before.  Then  she 
cries,  '' Spetta!  spetta! ''  (''Look!  look!'');  then,  '' Vienil 
vieni!''  (''Come!  come!")  She  invites  M.  Pallotti  to 
take  a  place  behind  his  wife  and  see  what  will  happen.  I 
must  add  that  both  of  them  had  been  earnestly  asking,  for 
some  minutes,  if  they  might  see  and  embrace  their  daughter, 
as  they  had  done  at  Rome. 


128  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

After  a  new  nervous  effort  on  the  part  of  Eiisapia,  and 
a  kind  of  convulsion  accompanied  bv  groans,  complaints,  and 
cries,  there  was  a  great  movement  of  the  curtain.  Several 
times  I  see  the  head  of  a  young  girl  bowing  before  me,  with 
high-arched  forehead  and  with  long  hair. 

She  bows  three  times,  and  shows  her  dark  profile  against 
the  window.  A  moment  after  we  hear  sounds  from  M.  and 
Mme.  Pallotti.  They  are  covering  with  kisses  the  face  of 
a  being  invisible  to  us,  saying  to  her  with  passionate  af- 
fection, ^^  Rosa,  Rosa,  my  dear,  my  Rosalie,"  etc.  They 
say  they  felt  between  their  hands  the  face  and  the  hair  of 
their  daughter. 

My  impression  w^as  that  there  was  really  there  a  fluidic 
being.  I  did  not  touch  it.  The  grief  of  the  parents,  revived 
and  consoled  at  the  same  time,  seemed  to  me  so  worthy  of 
respect  that  I  did  not  approach  them.  But,  as  to  the  iden- 
tity of  the  spectral  being,  I  believed  it  to  be  a  sentimental 
illusion  of  theirs. 

I  come  now  to  the  strangest  circumstances  of  all,  the  most 
incomprehensible,  the  most  incredible,  of  any  that  we  expe- 
rienced in  our  seances. 

On  ISTovember  21  M.  Jules  Bois  presents  a  book  before  the 
curtain  at  about  the  height  of  a  man  standing  upright.  The 
salon  is  dimly  lighted  by  a  little  lamp  with  a  shade,  set 
pretty  well  to  one  side.  Yet  objects  are  seen  with  distinct- 
ness. 

An  invisible  hand  behind  the  curtain  seizes  the  book. 
Then  all  the  observers  see  it  disappear  as  if  it  had  passed 
through  the  curtain.  It  is  not  seen  to  fall  before  the  curtain. 
It  is  an  octavo,  rather  slender,  bound  in  red,  which  I  have 
just  taken  from  my  library. 

[N'ow  Mme.  Flammarion,  almost  as  sceptical  as  M.  Bas- 
rhot  about  these  phenomena,  had  glided  past  the  window  to 
[lie  rear  of  the  curtain,  in  order  to  observe  carefully  what 


MY  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA       129 

was  passing.  She  hoped  to  detect  a  movement  of  the 
;  medium's  arm,  and  to  unmask  her,  in  spite  of  the  courtesy 
she  owed  her  as  her  hostess.  She  saw  very  plainly  Eu- 
sapia's  head,  motionless  before  the  mirror  which  reflected  the 
light. 

Suddenly  the  book  appears  to  her,  it  having  passed 
through  the  curtain, —  upheld  in  the  air,  without  hands  or 
arms,  for  a  space  of  one  or  two  seconds.  Then  she  sees  it 
fall  down.  She  cries,  "  Oh !  the  book :  it  has  just  passed 
through  the  curtain !  "  and,  pale  and  stupefied  with  wonder, 
she  abruptly  retires  among  the  observers. 

The  entire  hither  side  of  the  curtain  was  plainly  visible, 
because  the  left  portion  of  the  left-hand  curtain  had  been 
loosened  from  its  rod  by  the  weight  of  a  person  who  had  sat 
down  on  the  sofa  where  the  lower  part  of  the  curtain  had 
been  accidentally  placed;  and  because  a  large  opening  had 
been  made  fronting  the  mirror  which  filled  the  entire  wall 
of  the  farther  end  of  the  salon, —  a  mirror  that  reflected  the 
light  of  the  little  lamp. 

If  such  an  event  had  really  taken  place,  we  should  be 
forced  to  admit  that  the  book  went  through  the  curtain  with- 
out any  opening,  for  the  tissue  of  the  fabric  is  wholly  in- 
tact; and  we  cannot  suppose  for  a  single  moment  that  it 
passed  through  at  the  side,  the  book  having  been  held  out 
about  the  middle, —  that  is  to  say,  about  twenty-four  inches 
from  each  side  of  the  curtain,  the  breadth  of  which  is  four 
feet. 

E'evertheless,  this  book  was  seen  by  Mme.  Flammarion, 
who  was  looking  behind  the  curtain;  and  it  disappeared 
from  the  eyes  of  the  persons  who  were  in  front,  notably  M. 
Baschet,  M.  Brisson,  M.  J.  Bois,  Mme.  Fourton  and  myself. 
We  were  not  expecting  this  miracle  in  any  way;  we  were 
stupefied  by  it ;  we  asked  what  had  become  of  the  book,  and 
it  seemed  as  if  it  had  fallen  behind  the  curtain. 


1 


130  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Collective  hallucination?     But  we  were  all  in  cool  blood,  Y\ 
entirely  self-possessed. 

If  Eusapia  had  been  able  to  adroitly  slip  her  hand  around 
and  seize  the  book  through  the  portiere,  the  bare  outline  of 
the  book  would  not  have  been  seen,  but  a  protuberance  of 
the  portiere. 

How  great  a  value  the  sight  of  this  thing  passing  through 
a  portiere  would  have  as  a  scientific  datum,  if  one  were  only 
sure  of  the  absolute  honesty  of  the  medium, —  if,  indeed, 
this  medium  were  a  man  of  science,  a  physicist,  a  chemist, 
an  astronomer,  whose  scientific  integrity  would  be  above  sus- 
picion !  The  mere  fact  of  the  possibility  of  fraud  takes 
away  ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  the  worth  of  the  obser- 
vation, and  makes  it  necessary  for  us  to  see  it  a  hundred 
times  before  being  sure.  The  conditions  of  certainty  ought 
to  be  understood  by  all  investigators,  and  it  is  curious  to 
hear  intelligent  persons  express  surprise  at  our  doubts,  and 
at  the  strict  scientific  obligation  we  are  under  to  lay  down 
these  conditions.  In  order  to  be  sure  of  abnormalities  like 
these  levitations,  for  example,  we  must  make  sure  of  them 
a  hundred  times  over;  not  see  them  once,  but  a  hundred 
times. 

It  seems  to  us  impossible  that  matter  could  pass  through 
matter.  You  place  for  example  a  stone  upon  a  napkin.  If 
one  should  tell  you  that  he  has  found  it  under  the  napkin, 
without  any  break  in  the  continuity  of  the  tissue,  you  would 
not  believe  him.  However,  I  take  a  piece  of  ice,  weighing 
say  two  pounds,  and  place  it  upon  a  napkin;  I  place  both 
upon  a  strainer  in  the  oven;  the  piece  of  ice  melts,  passes 
tlirough  the  napkin,  and  falls  drop  by  drop  into  a  basin.  I 
put  the  whole  thing  into  a  freezing  machine,  the  melted 
water  congeals  again;  the  piece  of  ice  weighing  two  pounds 
has  passed  through  the  napkin. 

It  is  very  simple,  you  think.     Yes,  it  is  simple  because 


MY  EXPEK[ME]^;^TS  WITH  EUSAPIA       131 

*^e  understand  it.  But,  of  course,  this  is  not  the  same  case 
as  that  of  the  book.  Yet,  after  all,  it  is  matter  passing 
through  matter,  after  a  transformation  of  its  physical  condi- 
tion. 

We  might  seek  explanations,  invoke  the  hypotheses  of  the 
fourth  dimension,  or  discuss  the  non-Euclidian  geometry. 
It  seems  to  me  more  simple,  however,  to  think  that,  on  the 
one  hand,  these  experiments  are  not  yet  sufficient  for  us  to 
make  an  absolute  affirmation,  and  that,  on  the  other  hand, 
our  ignorance  of  everything  is  formidable  and  forbids  us 
to  deny  anything. 

The  phenomena  of  which  I  am  speaking  are  so  extraor- 
dinary that  one  is  led  to  doubt  them,  even  when  one  feels 
assured  that  he  has  seen  them.  Thus,  for  example,  I  no- 
iticed  that  M.  Rene  Baschet  —  my  learned  friend,  present 
editor  of  Illustration  —  affirmed  before  us  all,  during  the 
seance  and  afterward,  that  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes,  under 
I  the  table,  a  head  like  that  of  a  young  girl  of  about  twelve 
years  of  age,  together  with  the  bust.  This  head  sank  do^vn 
vertically  while  he  was  looking  at  it  and  disappeared.  He 
made  the  affirmation  on  the  21st,  repeated  it  on  the  2 2d  at  a 
theatre  where  we  met,  and  on  the  25th  again  at  his  home. 
Some  time  after,  M.  Baschet  was  convinced  that  he  had  been 
deceived,  that  he  had  been  the  dupe  of  an  illusion.  That 
is  also  possible.  I  was  looking  at  the  same  time,  as  well  as 
other  persons,  and  we  did  not  see  anything. 

It  is  then  very  human,  when  we  are  thinking,  some  days 
later,  of  these  curious  things,  for  us  to  suspect  ourselves. 

But  there  are  prejudices  less  explicable.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, at  the  seance  of  November  28  a  distinguished  engi- 
neer, M.  L.,  absolutely  refused  to  admit  the  levitation  of 
the  table,  in  spite  of  the  evidence.  Of  this  my  readers  may 
judge  for  themselves.  Here  is  a  note  which  I  extract  from 
my  reports: 


132  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

M.  L.  tells  me  that  the  medium  lifts  the  table  with  her 
feet,  while  resting  her  hands  upon  it.  I  ask  Ensapia  to  draw 
back  her  feet  under  her  chair.     The  table  is  lifted. 

After  this  second  levitation,  M.  L.  declares  that  he  is  not 
satisfied  (although  neither  of  the  feet  of  the  medium  is  un- 
der a  foot  of  the  table),  and  that  we  must  begin  the  experi- 
ment again,  without  having  her  legs  touched  at  any  point. 
The  medium  then  proposes  that  her  legs  be  fastened  to  those 
of  M.  L.  A  third  levitation  takes  place,  after  the  left  leg 
(the  incriminated  one)  of  the  medium  has  been  bound  to 
the  left  leg  of  M.  L. 

This  gentleman  then  declares  that  the  hypotheses  he  has 
made,  in  order  to  explain  the  phenomenon,  are  null  and 
void,  but  that  there  must  be,  all  the  same,  a  trick  in  the 
thing,  because  he  does  not  believe  in  the  supernatural. 

K either  do  I  believe  in  the  supernatural.  And  yet  there 
is  no  trick. 

This  manner  of  reasoning,  rather  common,  does  not  seem 
to  me  scientific.  It  is  to  claim  that  we  know  the  limits  of 
the  possible  and  of  the  impossible. 

People  who  deny  that  the  earth  moves  reason  in  just  this 
way.  That  which  is  contrary  to  common  sense  is  not  im- 
possible. Common  sense  is  the  average  state  of  popular 
knowledge;  that  is  to  say,  of  general  ignorance. 

A  man  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  sciences,  and 
who  reasons  calmly,  cannot  succeed  in  understanding 
the  ostracism  to  which  certain  sceptics  subject  unexplained 
phenomena.  "It  is  impossible,"  they  think.  This  fa- 
mous common  sense  on  which  they  plume  themselves 
is  nothing  after  all,  let  me  say,  but  common  opinion,  which 
accepts  habitual  facts  without  comprehending  them,  and 
which  varies  from  time  to  time.  What  man  of  good  sense 
would  formerly  have  admitted  that  we  should  one  day  be 
able  to  photograph  the  skeleton  of  a  living  being,  or  store 
up  the  voice  in  a  phonograph,  or  determine  the  chemical 
composition  of  an  inaccessible  star?     What  was  science  a 


MY  EXPEEIMENTS  WITH  EUSAPIA  133 
hundred  years  ago,  two  hundred  years,  tliree  hundred? 
:Look  at  astronomy  five  hundred  years  ago,  and  physiology, 
:  and  medicine,  and  natural  philosophy,  and  chemistry.  In 
five  hundred  years,  in  a  thousand  years,  in  two  thousand 
years,  what  will  these  sciences  of  ours  be  ?  And  in  a  hun- 
dred thousand  years?  Yes,  in  a  hundred  thousand  years, 
what  will  human  intelligence  be  ?  Our  actual  condition  will 
be  to  that  what  the  knowledge  of  a  dog  is  to  that  of  a  cul- 
tivated man;  that  is  to  say,  there  is  no  possible  comparison. 

We  smile  to-day  at  the  science  of  learned  men  of  the 
time  of  Copernicus  or  Christopher  Columbus  or  Ambroise 
Pare,  and  we  forget  that,  in  a  few  centuries,  savants  will 
estimate  us  in  the  same  fashion.  There  are  properties  of 
matter  which  are  completely  hidden  from  us,  and  humanity 
is  endowed  with  faculties  still  unkno^\Ti  to  us.  We  only 
advance  very  slowly  in  the  knowledge  of  things. 

The  critics  do  not  always  give  proof  that  they  possess  a 
very  compact  logical  power.  You  speak  to  them  of  facts 
proved  by  centuries  of  testimony.  They  challenge  the  value 
of  popular  testimony,  and  declare  that  these  uncultivated 
folks,  these  petty  merchants,  these  manufacturers,  these  la- 
borers, these  peasants,  are  incapable  of  observing  with  any 
exactitude. 

Some  days  after,  you  cite  the  savants,  men  whose  compe- 
tence has  been  proved  in  the  objective  sciences  of  observa- 
tion, which  attest  these  very  facts,  and  you  hear  the  sneerers 
answer  that  those  savants  are  competent  witnesses  in  their 
special  lines  of  study  and  work,  but  in  nothing  apart  from 
these. 

So,  after  this  fashion,  all  testimony  is  refused.  They 
declare  that  the  thing,  being  impossible,  cannot  have  been 
observed  at  all. 

Of  course  there  is  room  for  a  good  deal  of  analysis  in 
discussing  the  claims  of  human  testimony.     But^  if  we  sup- 


134  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

press  every  piece  of  testimony,  what  will  there  be  left  ?  - 
our  native  ignorance. 

But,  to  tell  the  truth,  there  are  some  of  these  negative 
gentry  who  are  sure  of  everything,  and  who  impose  theii*! 
aphorisms  upon  us  with  the  authority  of  a  czar  giving  outs 
his  ukase  or  edict. 

From  these  different  experiments  with  Eusapia  Paladino, 
including  those  described  in  the  first  and  second  chapters, 
the  impression  is  left  that  the  phenomena  observed  are,  to  a 
great  extent,  real  and  undeniable;  that  a  certain  number 
may  be  produced  by  fraud ;  but  that,  in  fact,  the  subject  is 
very  complex.  Again,  certain  movements  simply  belong  to 
the  material  order,  while  others  belong  at  once  to  the 
physical  order  and  the  psychical  order.  All  this  study  is 
vastly  more  complicated  than  people  in  general  have  any 
idea  of.  I  am  going  to  pass  summarily  in  review  other 
experiments  made  by  the  same  medium,  and  shall  after- 
wards devote  a  special  chapter  to  the  examination  of  frauds 
and  mystifications. 

Let  us  look,  first,  at  other  achievements  of  Eusapia,  and 
select  from  them  whatever  they  also  have  to  impart  in  the 
way  of  instruction  or  caution. 


CHAPTER  lY 

OTHEE  SEAI^CES  WITH  EUSAPIA   FAT.ADINQ 

The  medium,  whose  marvellous  seance  performances  we 
have  been  describing  has  been  the  subject  of  a  long  series 
of  observations  by  eminent  and  careful  experimenters.  Her 
endowments  are  indeed  exceptional.  When  you  study  with 
Eusapia,  the  comparison  of  her  powers  with  those  of  ordi- 
nary cases  makes  you  think  of  the  difference  between  a  fine 
electrical  machine  operated  under  good  atmospheric  condi- 
tions and  a  bad  one  operated  on  a  rainy  day.  You  see  more 
with  her  in  one  hour  than  in  a  host  of  faulty  trials  with 
other  mediums. 

Our  study  of  these  unknown  forces  will  progress  rapidly 
if,  in  place  of  limiting  the  results  obtained  to  one  or  two 
groups,  such  as  those  which  precede,  we  examine  the  totality 
of  the  observations  made  in  the  seances  of  this  medium. 
My  readers  can  then  compare  them  with  the  preceding  ones ; 
they  can  judge,  they  can  make  their  o^vn  estimates. 

The  documents  which  I  am  now  going  to  print  are  all 
borrowed  from  the  Anndles  des  sciences  psycliiques  and  from 
the  valuable  collection  of  M.  Albert  de  Rochas  upon  The  Ex- 
ternalization  of  Motivity. 

A  few  words,  first,  about  the  debuts  of  Eusapia  in  her  me- 
diumistic  career. 

Professor  Chiaia,  of  !N'aples,  to  whom  I  owe  it  that  I 
was  able  to  receive  Eusapia  at  my  house  and  obtain  the  ex- 
periments reported  above,  was  the  first  to  bring  her  gifts  into 
public  notice.     He  first  published  on  the   9th  of  August, 

135 


136  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

1888,   in  a  journal   issued  at  Rome,   the  following  letter 
addressed  to  Professor  Lombroso: 

Dear  Sir, —  In  your  article,  The  Influence  of  Civilization 
upon  Genius  (which  has  incontestable  beauties  of  style  and 
of  logic),  I  noticed  a  very  happy  paragraph.  It  seems  to  me 
to  sum  up  the  scientific  movement  (starting  from  the  time 
when  man  first  invented  that  head-breaking  thing  called  an 
alphabet)  down  to  our  own  day.  This  paragraph  reads  as 
follows : 

''  Every  generation  is  prematurely  ready  for  discoveries 
which  it  never  sees  born,  since  it  does  not  perceive  its  own 
incapacity  and  the  means  it  lacks  for  making  further  dis- 
coveries. The  repetition  of  any  one  manifestation,  by  im- 
pressing itself  upon  our  brains,  prepares  our  minds  and 
renders  them  less  and  less  incapable  of  discovering  the  laws 
to  which  this  manifestation  is  amenable.  Twenty  or  thirty 
years  are  enough  to  make  the  whole  world  admire  a  dis- 
covery which  was  treated  as  madness  at  the  moment  when  it 
was  made.  Even  at  the  present  day  academic  bodies  laugh 
at  hypnotism  and  at  homceopathy.  Who  knows  whether  my 
friends  and  I,  who  laugh  at  Spiritualism,  are  not  in  error, 
just  as  hypnotized  persons  are  ?  Thanks  to  the  illusion 
which  surrounds  us,  we  may  be  incapable  of  seeing  that  we 
deceive  ourselves;  and,  like  many  persons  of  unsound  mind 
who  stubbornly  oppose  the  truth,  we  laugh  at  those  who  are 
not  of  our  way  of  thinking." 

Struck  by  this  keen  thought,  which  by  chance  I  find 
adapted  to  a  certain  matter  with  which  I  have  been  occu- 
pied for  some  time,  I  joyfully  accept  it,  without  abatement, 
without  any  comment  which  might  change  its  sense;  and, 
confining  myself  to  the  fine  old  rules  of  chivalry,  I  make  use 
of  it  as  a  challenge.  The  consequences  of  this  challenge 
will  neither  be  dangerous  nor  bloody:  we  shall  fight  fairly; 
and,  whatever  may  be  the  results  of  the  encounter,  whether 
I  succumb  or  whether  I  make  my  opponent  yield,  it  will 
always  be  in  a  friendly  way.  The  result  will  tend  to  the 
improvement  of  one  of  the  two  adversaries  and  will  be  in 
every  way  useful  to  the  great  cause  of  truth. 


OTHEE  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         137 

There  is  much  talk  nowadays  of  a  special  malady  which 
is  found  in  the  human  organism.  We  notice  it  every  day; 
but  w^e  are  ignorant  of  its  cause  and  know  not  what  to  call 
it.  The  cry  is  raised  that  it  be  subjected  to  the  examina- 
tion of  contemporary  science;  but  science,  in  reply,  only 
meets  the  request  with  the  mocking  ironical  smile  of  a 
Pyrrhus,  for  the  precise  reason  (as  you  say)  that  the  time 
is  not  yet  ripe. 

But  the  author  of  the  paragraph  I  have  quoted  above,  of 
course  did  not  write  it  merely  for  the  pleasure  of  writing. 
It  seems  to  me,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  would  not  smile  dis- 
dainfully if  he  were  invited  to  observe  a  special  case  that 
is  worthy  to  attract  the  attention  and  to  seriously  occupy 
the  mind  of  a  Lombroso.  The  case  I  allude  to  is  that  of  an 
invalid  woman  who  belongs  to  the  humblest  class  of  society. 
She  is  nearly  thirty  years  old  and  very  ignorant ;  her  look  is 
neither  fascinating  nor  endowed  with  the  power  which  mod- 
ern criminologists  call  irresistible;  but,  when  she  wishes,  be 
it  by  day  or  by  night,  she  can  divert  a  curious  group  for  an 
hour  or  so  with  the  most  surprising  phenomena.  Either 
bound  to  a  seat  or  firmly  held  by  the  hands  of  the  curious,  she 
attracts  to  her  the  articles  of  furniture  which  surround  her, 
lifts  them  up,  holds  them  suspended  in  air  like  Mahomet's 
coffin,  and  makes  them  come  down  again  with  undulatory 
movements,  as  if  they  were  obeying  her  will.  She  increases 
their  weight  or  lessens  it  according  to  her  pleasure.  She  raps 
or  taps  upon  the  walls,  the  ceiling,  the  floor,  with  fine  rhythm 
and  cadence.  In  response  to  the  requests  of  the  spectators, 
something  like  flashes  of  electricity  shoot  forth  from  her 
body,  and  envelop  her  or  enwrap  the  spectators  of  these  mar- 
vellous scenes.  She  draws  upon  cards  that  you  hold  out 
everything  that  you  want  —  figures,  signatures,  numbers, 
sentences  —  by  just  stretching  out  her  hand  toward  the  indi- 
cated place.  If  you  place  in  the  corner  of  the  room  a  vessel 
containing  a  layer  of  soft  clay,  you  find  after  some  moments 
the  imprint  in  it  of  a  small  or  a  large  hand,  the  image  of 
a  face  (front  view  or  profile),  from  which  a  plaster  cast  can 
be  taken.     In  this  way,  portraits  of  a  face  taken  at  differ- 


138  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

ent  angles  have  been  preserved,  and  those  Avho  desire  so  to  do 
can  thus  make  serious  and  important  studies.* 

This  woman  rises  in  the  air,  no  matter  what  bands  tie 
her  down.  She  seems  to  lie  upon  the  empty  air  as  on  a 
couch,  contrary  to  all  the  laws  of  gravity ;  she  plays  on  mu- 
sical instruments  —  organs,  bells,  tambourines  —  as  if  they 
had  been  touched  by  her  hands  or  moved  by  the  breath  of 
invisible  gnomes. 

You  will  call  that  a  particular  case  of  hypnotism;  you 
will  say  that  this  sick  woman  is  a  fakir  in  petticoats,  that 
you  would  shut  her  up  in  a  hospital.  Let  me  beg  of  you,  most 
eminent  professor,  not  to  shift  the  argument.  As  is  well 
known,  hypnotism  only  causes  a  momentary  illusion;  after 
the  seance,  everything  takes  its  original  form.  But  here 
the  case  is  different.  During  the  days  which  followed  these 
marvellous  scenes  there  remained  traces  and  records  worthy 
of  consideration. 

What  do  you  think  of  that? 

But  allow  me  to  continue.  This  woman,  at  times,  can  in- 
crease her  stature  by  more  than  four  inches.  She  is  like 
an  india-rubber  doll,  like  an  automaton  of  a  new  kind;  she 
takes  strange  forms.  How  many  legs  and  arms  has  she? 
We  do  not  know.  While  her  limbs  are  being  held  by  incred- 
ulous spectators,  we  see  other  limbs  coming  into  view,  with- 
out knowing  where  they  come  from.  Her  shoes  are  too  small 
to  fit  these  witch-feet  of  her,  and  this  particular  circum- 
stance gives  rise  to  the  suspicion  of  the  intervention  of 
mysterious  power. 

Don't  laugh  when  I  say  ''gives  rise  to  the  suspicion/' 
I  affirm  nothing ;  you  will  have  time  to  laugh  presently. 

When  this  woman  is  bound,  a  third  arm  is  seen  to  appear, 
and  nobody  knows  where  it  comes  from.  Then  follows  a 
long  series  of  droll  teasing  tricks.  She  abstracts  bonnets, 
watches,  money,  rings,  pins,  and  produces  them  again  with 
great  adroitness  and  gayety;  she  takes  coats  and  waistcoats, 
pulls  off  boots,  brushes  hats  and  puts  them  back  upon  the 
heads  of  those  to  whom  they  belong,  curls  and  strokes  mus- 
taches, and  occasionally  hits  you  with  a  fist,  for  she  also  has 

*  M.  Chiaia  has  sent  me  photographs  of  these  prints.  I  reproduce 
6omo  of  them  here  (PI.  VII). 


, 


Plate  VII.     Plaster  Casts  of  Impressioxs  in  Clay  Produced 
BY  AX  Unkxowk  Force. 


OTHER  SEAillTCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         139 

fits  of  ill-temper.  I  said  a  fist,  because  it  is  always  a  clumsy 
and  callous  hand  that  strikes  the  blow.  It  has  been  noticed 
that  the  hand  of  the  sorceress  is  small.  She  has  large  finger- 
nails; has  a  moist  skin,  the  temperature  of  which  varies 
from  the  natural  warmth  of  the  body  to  the  icy  chill  of  a 
corpse  the  touch  of  which  makes  you  shiver;  she  allows 
herself  to  be  handled,  pinched,  observed ;  and  ends  by  rising 
into  the  air,  remaining  suspended  there  with  no  visible 
means  of  support,  like  one  of  those  plump  wooden  hands 
hung  out  over  the  sidewalk  as  a  sign  at  the  shops  of  the 
glove  merchants. 

I  swear  to  you  that  I  emerge  with  a  very  calm  spirit  from 
the  cave  of  this  Circe.  Freed  from  her  enchantments,  I 
pass  all  my  impressions  in  review,  and  end  in  scepticism, 
although  the  testimony  of  my  senses  assures  me  that  I  have 
not  been  the  sport  of  an  error  or  of  an  illusion. 

All  these  extraordinary  manoeuvres  cannot  be  attributed  to 
prestidigitation.  We  ought  to  be  on  our  guard  against 
every  kind  of  trickery,  and  make  a  scrupulous  investigation 
in  order  to  forestall  mendacity  or  fraud. 

But  the  test  sometimes  fails ;  the  facts  do  not  always  meet 
the  demands  of  the  eager  and  restless  spectators.  This  is 
one  more  mystery  to  explain,  and  proves  that  the  individual 
herself  who  works  these  wonders  is  not  their  sole  arbiter. 
Undoubtedly,  she  possesses  the  exclusive  power  of  produc- 
ing these  porteintous  feats;  but  they  cannot  materialize 
except  with  the  co-operation  of  an  unknown  agent,  some 
deus  ex  macliina. 

From  all  this  two  things  result;  namely,  the  great  diffi- 
culty there  is  in  examining  the  true  inwardness  of  this  stupe- 
fying piece  of  charlatanry,  and  the  necessity  of  making  a 
series  of  experiments  in  order  to  get  together  enough  of 
them  to  illuminate  the  dark  intellects  of  the  dupes  and  to 
overcome  the  obstinacy  of  the  wranglers. 

Now  you  see  my  challenge.  If  you  have  not  written  the 
paragraph  cited  above  simply  for  the  pleasure  of  writing 
it;  if  you  have  the  true  love  of  science;  if  you  are  without 
prejudices, —  you,  the  first  alienist  in  Italy, —  please  have 
the  kindness  to  take  the  field,  and  persuade  yourself  that  you 
are  going  to  measure  swords  with  a  worthy  adversary. 


140  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

When  you  can  take  a  week's  vacation,  leave  your  beloved 
studies,  and,  instead  of  going  into  the  country,  show  me  a 
place  where  we  can  meet.     Choose  the  time  yourself. 

You  are  to  have  a  room  into  which  you  will  enter  alone  | 
before  the  experiment ;  there  you  will  arrange  the  furniture 
and  other  objects  just  as  you  wish;  you  will  lock  the  door 
with  a  key.  I  believe  it  would  be  useless  to  present  the  ladj 
to  you  in  the  costume  worn  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  because 
this  new  Eve  is  incapable  of  retaliating  upon  the  serpent 
and  of  seducing  you. 

Four  gentlemen  will  be  our  seconds,  as  is  fitting  in  all 
knightly  encounters;  you  will  choose  two,  and  I  will  bring 
the  other  two. 

]^o  easier  conditions  were  ever  drawn  up  by  the  Eoiights 
of  the  Round  Table.  It  is  evident  that,  if  the  experiment 
does  not  succeed,  I  shall  be  able  to  accuse  only  the  harsh 
decrees  of  destiny ;  you  will  consider  me  but  as  a  man  suffer- 
ing from  hallucination,  who  longs  to  be  cured  of  his  extrava- 
gances. But,  if  success  crowns  our  efforts,  your  loyalty  will 
impose  upon  you  the  duty  of  writing  an  article,  in  which, 
without  circumlocution,  reticence,  or  error,  you  will  attest 
the  reality  of  the  mysterious  phenomena  and  promise  to  in- 
vestigate their  causes. 

If  you  decline  this  meeting,  please  explain  to  me  your 
sentence,  ''  The  time  is  not  yet  ripe."  Undoubtedly,  that 
might  apply  to  common  intellects,  but  not  to  a  Lombroso,  to 
whom  is  addressed  this  advice  of  Dante :  "  Honor  ought  to 
close  the  lips  of  falsehood  with  truth.'' 

Yours  very  devotedly  and  respectfully, 

(Peofessor)  Ciiiaia. 

M.  Lombroso  did  not  at  once  accept  this  eloquent  and 
witty  challenge.  However,  w^e  shall  presently  find  that 
learned  professor  himself  experimenting.  In  the  mean  time 
read  what  M.  de  Rochas  tells  us  of  Eusapia's  youth : — 

Her  first  mediumistic  manifestations  began  at  the  age 
of  puberty,  when  she  was  about  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
old.      This   coincidence   is    found   in   almost   aU   the    cases 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         141 

in  which  the  singular  power  of  producing  movements  at  a 
distance  has  been  observed. 

At  this  epoch  of  her  life  it  was  remarked  that  the  Spirit- 
ualistic seances  to  which  she  was  invited  succeeded  much 
better  when  she  was  seated  at  the  table.  But  thej  tired 
and  bored  her,  and  she  refrained  from  taking  part  in  them 
for  eight  or  nine  years. 

It  was  only  in  her  twenty-second  or  twenty-third  year 
that  the  Spiritualistic  education  of  Eusapia  began.  It  was 
directed  by  an  ardent  Spiritualist,  M.  Damiani.  It  was 
then  that  the  personality  of  John  King  appeared,  a  spirit 
who  took  possession  of  her  when  she  was  in  the  trance  state.* 

This  John  King  is  said  to  be  the  brother  of  Crookes's 
Katie  King,  and  to  have  been  Eusapia' s  father  in  another 
existence.  It  is  John  who  speaks  when  Eusapia  is  in  her 
trance ;  when  he  speaks  of  her,  he  calls  her  ''  my  daughter," 
and  gives  advice  about  the  care  of  her  person  and  life.  M. 
Ochorowicz  thinks  this  John  is  a  personality  created  in  the 
spirit  of  Eusapia  by  the  union  of  a  certain  number  of  impres- 
sions collected  in  the  different  psychic  environments  in 
which  her  life  has  been  passed.  This  would  be  almost  the 
identical  explanation  for  the  personalities  suggested  by  the 
hypnotists,  and  for  the  variations  of  personality  observed  by 
MM.  Azam,  Bourru,  and  Burot,  et  al. 

Some  have  thought  they  noticed  that  Eusapia  prepared 
herself,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  at  the  seance,  by  di- 
minishing her  respiration, —  a  very  singular  thing.  At  the 
same  time,  her  pulse  gradually  rises  from  88  to  120  pulsa- 
tions a  minute.  Is  this  a  practice  analogous  to  that  which 
the  fakirs  of  India  employ,  or  a  simple  effect  of  the  emotion 
which,  before  every  seance,  Eusapia  experiences  ?  —  a  fact 
which  has  a  strong  tendency  to  convince  the  sitters,  but 
is  never  sure  of  the  production  of  the  phenomena. 

Eusapia  is  not  hypnotized;  she  enters  of  herself  into  the 
trance  state  when  she  becomes  a  link  in  the  chain  of  hands. 

She  begins  to  sigh  deeply,  then  yawns  and  hiccoughs.  A 
series  of  varied  expressions  passes  over  her  face.     Sometimes 

*  The  word  "trance  "  has  been  given  to  the  peculiar  state  into  which 
mediums  fall  when  they  lose  the  consciousness  of  their  environment. 
It  is  a  kind  of  somnambulistic  sleep. 


142  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

it  takes  on  a  demoniacal  look,  accompanied  by  a  fitful  laugli 
very  much  like  that  which  Gounod  gives  to  Mephistopheles 
in  the  opera  of  Faust,  and  which  almost  always  precedes  an 
important  phenomenon.  Sometimes  her  face  flushes;  the 
eyes  become  brilliant  and  liquid,  and  are  opened  wide.  The 
smile  and  the  motions  are  the  mark  of  the  erotic  ecstasy. 
She  says  ''  mio  caro''  ("my  dear"),  leans  her  head  upon 
the  shoulder  of  her  neighbor,  and  courts  caresses  when  she 
believes  that  he  is  sympathetic.  It  is  at  this  point  that  phe- 
nomena are  produced,  the  success  of  which  causes  her  agree- 
able and  even  voluptuous  thrills.  During  this  time  her 
legs  and  her  arms  are  in  a  state  of  marked  tension,  almost 
rigid,  or  even  undergo  convulsive  contractions.  Sometimes 
a  tremor  goes  through  her  entire  body. 

To  these  states  of  nervous  super-activity  succeeds  a  period 
of  depression  characterized  by  an  almost  corpse-like  paleness 
of  the  face  (which  is  frequently  covered  with  perspiration) 
and  the  almost  complete  inertia  of  her  limbs.  If  she  lifts 
her  hand,  it  falls  back  of  its  own  weight. 

During  the  trance  her  eyes  are  turned  up,  and  only  the 
white  is  visible.  Her  presence  of  mind  and  her  general 
consciousness  are  diminished  or  not  at  all  in  evidence.  She 
gives  no  reply,  or,  if  she  does,  her  reply  is  retarded  by  ques- 
tions. Eusapia  has  no  recollection  of  what  has  taken  place 
during  the  seances,  except  for  states  of  mind  bordering  close 
on  those  of  her  normal  state;  and,  consequently,  they  only 
relate,  as  a  general  thing,  to  phenomena  of  slight  intensity. 

In  order  to  aid  in  the  manifestations,  she  frequently  asks 
that  her  force  be  increased  by  putting  one  more  person  in  the 
chain.  It  has  frequently  happened  to  her  to  address  a  sym- 
pathetic spectator,  to  take  his  fingers  and  press  them  as  if 
to  draw  something  out  of  them,  then  push  them  abruptly 
away,  saying  that  she  has  enough  force. 

In  proportion  as  her  trance  increases,  her  sensibility  to 
light  increases.  A  sudden  light  causes  difiiculty  in  her 
breathing,  rapid  beatings  of  the  heart,  an  hysterical  feeling, 
general  irritation  of  the  nerves,  pain  in  the  head  and  eyes, 
and  a  troiiibling  of  the  whole  body,  with  convulsions, —  ex- 
cept when  she  herself  asks  for  light  (a  thing  which  fre- 
quently happens  to  her  when  there  are  interesting  verifica- 


\ 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         143 

tions  to  be  made  upon  the  subject  of  displaced  objects),  for 
I  then  her  attention  is  strongly  called  in  other  directions. 

She  is  in  constant  motion  during  the  active  period  of  the 
seances.  These  movements  may  be  attributed  to  the  hys- 
terical crises  which  then  agitate  her;  but  they  appear  to  be 
necessary  to  the  production  of  the  phenomena.  Every  time 
that  a  movement  is  being  caused  at  a  distance,  she  imitates 
it,  either  with  her  hands  or  with  her  feet,  and  by  developing 
a  much  stronger  force  than  would  be  necessary  for  producing 
the  movement  by  contact. 

Here  is  what  she  herself  says  of  her  impressions  when 
she  wishes  to  produce  a  movement  at  a  distance.  Sli^  sud- 
denly experiences  an  ardent  desire  to  produce  the  phenomena; 
then  she  has  a  feeling  of  numbness  and  the  goose-flesh  sensa- 
tion in  her  fingers;  these  sensations  keep  increasing ;  at  the 
same  time  she  feels  in  the  inferior  portion  of  the  vertebral 
column  the  flowing  of  a  current  which  rapidly  extends  into 
her  arm  as  far  as  her  elbow,  where  it  is  gently  arrested.  It 
is  at  this  point  that  the  phenomenon  takes  place. 

During  and  after  the  levitations  of  the  tables  she  has  a 
feeling  of  pain  in  her  knees ;  during  and  after  other  phenom- 
ena, in  her  elbows  and  all  through  her  arms. 

It  was  only  in  the  end  of  February,  1891,  that  Professor 
Lombroso,  whose  curiosity  had  finally  been  strongly  excited, 
decided  to  come  to  Naples  to  examine  these  curious  mani- 
festations about  which  everybody  in  Italy  was  speaking. 
The  following  reports  by  M.  Ciolfi  were  published  apropos 
of  this  visit.* 

First  Seance 

A  large  room,  selected  on  the  first  floor  by  these  gentlemen, 
had  been  put  at  our  disposal.  M.  Lombroso  began  by  care- 
fully examining  the  medium,  after  which  we  took  places 
around  a  gaming  table.  Mme.  Paladino  sat  at  one  end;  at 
her  left,  MM.  Lombroso  and  Gigli ;  I  faced  the  medium,  be- 
tween MM.  Gigli  and  Yizioli;  then  came  MM.  Ascensi  and 

*  Annales  des  sciences  psychiques,  181,  p.  326. 


144  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Tamburini,   who  closed  the  circle,   the  last  named   at  the  I 
right  of  the  medium  and  in  contact  with  her. 

The  room  was  lighted  by  candles  placed  upon  a  table  be- 
hind Mme.  Paladino.  MM.  Tamburini  and  Lombroso  each 
held  a  hand  of  the  medium.  Their  knees  touched  hers,  at  a 
certain  distance  from  the  feet  of  the  table ;  and  her  feet  were 
under  theirs. 

After  a  rather  long  wait  the  table  began  to  move,  slowly 
at  first, —  a  matter  explained  by  the  scepticism,  not  to  say 
the  positively  hostile  spirit,  of  those  who  were  this  night 
in  a  seance  circle  for  the  first  time.  Then,  little  by  little, 
the  movements  increased  in  intensity.  M.  Lombroso  proved 
the  levitation  of  the  table,  and  estimated  at  twelve  or  fifteen 
pounds  the  resistance  to  the  pressure  which  he  had  to  make 
with  his  hands  in  order  to  overcome  that  levitation. 

This  phenomenon  of  a  heavy  body  sustained  in  the  air, 
off  its  centre  of  gravity  and  resisting  a  pressure  of  twelve  or 
fifteen  pounds,  very  much  surprised  and  astonished  the 
learned  gentlemen,  who  attributed  it  to  the  action  of  an 
unknown  magnetic  force. 

At  my  request,  taps  and  scratchings  were  heard  in  the 
table.  This  was  new  cause  for  astonishment,  and  led  the  gen- 
tlemen to  themselves  call  for  the  putting  out  of  the  candles  in 
order  to  ascertain  whether  the  intensity  of  the  noises  would 
be  increased,  as  had  been  stated.  All  remained  seated  and 
in  contact. 

In  a  dim  light  which  did  not  hinder  the  most  careful 
surveillance,  violent  blows  were  first  heard  at  the  middle 
point  of  the  table.  Then  a  bell  placed  upon  a  round  table, 
at  the  distance  of  a  yard  to  the  left  of  the  medium  (in  such 
a  way  that  she  was  placed  behind  and  to  the  right  of  M. 
Lombroso),  rose  into  the  air,  and  went  tinkling  over  the 
heads  of  the  company,  describing  a  circle  around  our  table, 
where  it  finally  came  to  rest. 

In  the  midst  of  the  expressions  of  deep  amazement  which 
this  unexpected  phenomenon  drew  forth,  M.  Lombroso  showed 
a  strong  desire  to  hear  and  to  prove  it  again.  Whereupon 
the  little  bell  began  to  sound,  and  again  made  the  tour  of  the 
table,  redoubling  its  strokes  upon  it,  to  such  a  degree  that 
M.  Asccnsi,  divided  between  astonishment  and  the  fear  of 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         145 

having  his  fingers  broken  (the  bell  weighed  fully  ten 
ounces),  hastened  to  rise  and  go  and  seat  himself  on  a  sofa 
behind  me. 

I  liept  insisting  that  we  had  to  do  with  an  intelligent 
force, —  a  matter  that  he  persistently  denied, —  and  that  con- 
sequently there  was  nothing  to  fear.  But  M.  Ascensi  re- 
fused, under  any  circumstances,  to  take  his  place  again  at 
I  the  table. 

I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  circle  was  broken, 
'  since  one  of  the  experimenters  had  left,  and  that,  under 
penalty  of  no  longer  being  able  to  obser\^e  the  phenom- 
ena in  a  cool  judicious  spirit,  it  would  be  necessary  that  he 
should  at  least  keep  silent  and  motionless.  M.  Ascensi  was 
very  willing  to  pledge  himself  to  that. 

The  light  was  extinguished,  and  the  experiments  began 
again.  While,  in  response  to  a  unanimous  wish,  the  little  bell 
was  beginning  again  its  tinklings  and  its  mysterious  aerial 
circuits,  M.  Ascensi,  taking  his  cue,  unknown  to  us,  from  M. 
Tamburini,  went  (unperceived,  owing  to  the  darkness),  and 
stood  at  the  right  of  the  medium,  and  at  once  with  a  single 
scratch  lighted  a  match,  so  successfully,  as  he  declared,  that 
he  could  see  the  little  hell,  while  it  was  vibrating  in  the  air, 
suddenly  fall  upon  a  bed  about  six  feet  and  a  half  behind 
Mme.  Paladino. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  depict  for  you  the  amazement  of  the 
learned  body,  the  most  striking  manifestation  of  which  was 
a  rapid  exchange  of  questions  and  comments  upon  this 
strange  occurrence. 

After  some  remarks  I  made  about  the  intervention  of  M. 
Ascensi,  who  seemed  likely  to  seriously  trouble  the  psychic 
condition  of  the  medium,  the  darkness  was  turned  on  again, 
so  to  speak,  in  order  to  continue  the  experiments. 

At  first  it  was  a  little  work-table,  small,  but  heavy,  that 
moved  about.  It  was  placed  at  the  left  of  Mme.  Eusapia, 
and  it  was  upon  it  that  the  little  bell  was  placed  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  seance.  This  small  piece  of  furniture  struck 
against  the  chair  on  which  M.  Lombroso  was  seated,  and 
tried  to  hoist  itself  up  on  our  table. 

In  the  presence  of  this  new  phenomenon,  M.  Vizioli  gave 
up  his  place  at  our  table  to  M.  Ascensi  and  went  to  stand 


146  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

between  the  work-table  and  Mme.  Ensapia,  to  whom  he 
turned  his  back.  At  least  he  said  he  did  all  this,  for  we 
could  not  see  him  on  account  of  the  darkness.  He  took  the 
little  table  between  his  two  hands  and  tried  to  hold  it ;  but, 
in  spite  of  his  efforts ^  it  released  itself  and  went  rolling  over 
the  floor. 

An  important  point  to  note  is  that,  although  IIM.  Lom- 
broso  and  Tamburini  had  not  for  a  moment  let  go  of  the 
hands  of  Mme.  Paladino,  Professor  Vizioli  announced  that 
he  felt  a  pinch  in  the  back.  General  hilarity  followed  this 
declaration. 

M.  Lombroso  stated  that  he  had  felt  his  chair  lifted  up 
so  that  he  was  compelled  to  remain  standing  for  some  time, 
after  which  his  chair  had  been  so  placed  as  to  permit  him  to 
sit  down  again. 

He  also  experienced  twitches  upon  his  clothes.  Then  he 
and  M.  Tamburini  felt  the  touches  of  an  invisible  hand  upon 
their  cheeks  and  fingers. 

M.  Lombroso,  especially  struck  with  the  two  facts  of  the 
.work-table  and  the  little  bell,  judged  them  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance for  him  to  put  off  till  Tuesday  his  departure  from 
Xaples,  which  had  been  first  fixed  for  Monday. 

Upon  his  request  I  promised  a  new  seance,  on  Monday, 
at  the  Hotel  de  Geneve. 

Second  Seance 

At  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  I  arrived  at  the  Hotel  de 
Geneve,  accompanied  by  the  medium,  Eusapia  Paladino. 
We  were  received  under  the  colonnade  by  MM.  Lombroso, 
Tamburini,  Ascensi,  and  several  other  persons  whom  they 
had  invited;  namely  Professors  Gigli,  Limoncelli,  Vizioli, 
and  Bianchi  (superintendent  of  the  insane  asylum  at  Sales), 
Dr.  Penta,  and  a  young  nephew  of  M.  Lombroso,  who  lives 
at  Naples. 

After  the  customary  introductions,  we  were  asked  to  go 
up  to  the  highest  story  in  the  house,  where  we  were  intro- 
duced into  a  very  large  room  with  an  alcove.  Curtains,  or 
])ortieres,  were  let  down  across  the  front  of  the  alcove.  Be- 
hind the  curtains  at  a  distance  of  about  three  feet  and  a  haK, 


OTHER  SEA:N^CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         147 

measured  by  MM.  Lombroso  and  Tamburini,  there  was 
placed,  in  this  alcove,  a  round  table,  with  a  porcelain  salver 
filled  with  flour,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  face-imprints  in  it. 
The  alcove  also  contained  a  tin  trumpet,  writing-paper,  and 
a  sealed  envelope  containing  a  sheet  of  white  paper,  to  see 
if  we  could  not  get  direct  writing  on  it. 

The  gentlemen  inspected  the  alcove  with  extreme  care,  in 
order  to  assure  themselves  that  there  was  nothing  there  of  a 
fixed-up,  suspicious  nature. 

Mme.  Paladino  sat  down  at  the  table,  a  little  less  than  two 
feet  from  the  alcove  curtains,  turning  her  back  to  them. 
Then,  at  her  request,  she  had  her  body  and  her  feet  tied  to 
her  chair  by  means  of  cloth  bands.  This  was  effected  by 
three  members  of  the  company,  who  left  only  her  arms  free. 
That  done,  places  were  taken  at  the  table  in  the  following 
order:  on  the  left  of  Mme.  Eusapia,  M.  Lombroso;  then,  in 
succession,  M.  Vizioli,  myself,  the  nephew  of  M.  Lombroso, 
MM.  Gigli,  Limoncelli,  Tamburini;  finally,  Dr.  Penta,  who 
completed  the  circle  and  sat  at  the  right  of  the  medium. 

MM.  Ascensi  and  Bianchi  refused  to  form  part  of  the  cir- 
cle, and  remained  standing  behind  MM.  Tamburini  and 
Penta.  I  paid  little  attention  to  these  two,  being  certain 
that  their  action  was  a  premeditated  combination  in  order  to 
redouble  the  vigilance.  I  simply  recommended  that,  while 
they  were  observing  with  extreme  care,  each  should  remain 
quiet. 

The  experiments  began  in  candlelight  strong  enough  to 
light  up  the  whole  room.  After  a  long  wait  the  table  began 
to  move,  slowly  at  first,  then  more  energetically.  How- 
ever, the  movements  remained  intermittent,  labored,  and 
much  less  vigorous  than  at  Saturday's  seance. 

The  table  volunteered  a  request  by  taps  of  its  leg  des- 
ignating the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  that  MM.  Limoncelli  and 
Penta  should  exchange  places.  This  exchange  effected,  the 
table  called  for  the  turning  out  of  lights. 

A  moment  after,  and  with  more  force  this  time,  the  move- 
ments of  the  table  began  again.  Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of 
these,  violent  blows  were  heard.  The  chair  placed  at  M. 
Lombroso's  right  tried  to  climb  up  on  the  table,  then  hung 
suspended  upon  the  arm  of  the  learned  professor.     All  of 


148  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

a  sudden  the  curtains  of  the  alcove  were  shaken,  and  swung 
forward  over  the  table  in  such  a  w^ay  as  to  envelop  M.  Lom- 
broso,  who  was  very  much  moved  by  such  a  wonder,  as  he 
himself  has  declared. 

All  these  phenomena,  happening  at  long  intervals,  in  the 
darkness,  and  in  the  midst  of  noisy  conversation,  were  not 
estimated  at  their  true  worth.  It  was  thought  that  they  were 
only  the  effects  of  chance  or  were  jests  of  some  member  of 
the  company. 

While  we  are  all  waiting  and  discussing  the  import  of  the 
phenomena  and  the  greater  or  less  value  that  should  be  set  \ 
on  them,  the  noise  of  the  fall  of  an  object  is  heard.  Wlien 
the  room  is  lighted,  there  is  found  at  our  feet  under  the  table 
the  trumpet  which  had  been  placed  on  the  round  table  in 
the  alcove  behind  the  curtains.  This  circumstance,  which 
MM.  Bianchi  and  Ascensi  receive  with  a  burst  of  laughter, 
surprises  the  exj)erimenters,  and  has  the  effect  of  more  com- 
pletely fixing  their  attention. 

The  room  is  darkened  again,  and,  by  urgent  request  some 
fugitive  glimmers  of  light  are  seen  to  appear  and  disappear 
at  long  intervals.  This  phenomenon  impressed  MM.  Bian- 
chi and  Ascensi,  and  put  an  end  to  their  incessant  railleries, 
so  much  so  that  they  came  and  formed  a  part  of  the  circle. 
At  the  moment  of  the  appearance  of  the  gleams,  and  even 
some  time  after  they  had  ceased  to  show  themselves,  MM. 
Limoncelli  and  Tamburini,  at  the  right  of  the  medium,  said 
that  they  were  touched  in  several  places  by  a  hand.  M. 
Lombroso's  young  nephew,  absolutely  sceptical,  who  had 
taken  a  seat  by  the  side  of  M.  Limoncelli,  declared  that  he 
felt  the  touch  of  a  flesh-and-blood  hand,  and  asked  with  some 
impetuosity  who  did  that.  He  forgot  —  being  not  only 
sceptical,  but  artless  — ■  that,  like  himself,  all  the  persons 
present  were  helping  to  form  the  chain  of  hands  and  were  in 
mutual  contact. 

It  was  getting  late,  and  the  lack  of  homogeneity  in  the  cir- 
cle was  abridging  the  phenomena.  Under  these  conditions 
I  thought  I  ought  to  end  the  seance  and  cause  the  candles 
to  be  lighted. 

When  MM.  Limoncelli  and  Vizioli  were  taking  leave,  the 
medium  being  still  seated  and  bound,   and  all  of  us  were 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         149 

standing  around  the  table  conversing  about  tbe  luminous  pbe- 
nomena,  and  comparing  the  scattered  and  feeble  effects  ob- 
tained in  this  soiree  with  those  of  the  Saturday  preceding, 
and  seeking  the  reason  for  this  difference,  we  heard  noise 
in  the  alcove,  and  saw  the  portieres  which  enclosed  it  vigor- 
ously shaken,  and  the  round  table  which  was  behind  them 
slowly  advancing  toward  Mme.  Paladino,  still  seated  and 
bound. 

On  seeing  this  strange,  unexpected  phenomena  occur  in 
full  light,  we  were  all  stupefied  with  amazement.  M.  Bian- 
chi  and  M.  Lombroso's  nephew  dashed  into  the  alcove,  under 
the  impression  that  some  person  concealed  there  was  pro- 
ducing the  movement  of  the  portieres  and  the  round  table. 
Their  astonishment  was  unbounded  when  they  ascertained 
that  there  was  no  one  there,  and  that,  under  their  very  eyes, 
the  table  continued  to  glide  over  the  floor  in  the  direction  of 
the  medium.  That  is  not  all.  Professor  Lombroso  ob- 
served that,  while  the  table  was  in  movement,  the  salver  on 
it  had  been  turned  upside  down  without  a  single  particle  of 
the  flour  which  it  contained  being  spilled ;  and  he  added  that 
no  prestidigitator  would  have  been  able  to  accomplish  such  a 
feat.  In  the  presence  of  these  phenomena  taking  place  as 
they  did,  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  circle,  in  such  a  way 
as  to  eliminate  the  hypothesis  of  a  magnetic  current.  Pro- 
fessor Bianchi,  in  obedience  to  the  love  of  truth,  confessed 
that  it  was  he  who,  for  the  sake  of  a  joke,  had  contrived  and 
brought  about  the  fall  of  the  tin  trumpet,  but  that  in  the 
presence  of  such  achievements  as  this  he  could  no  longer  be 
sceptical,  and  was  going  to  apply  himself  to  the  study  of 
them  in  order  to  investigate  their  causes. 

Professor  Lombroso  complained  of  the  trick,  and  said  to  M. 
Bianchi  that,  as  between  professors  met  in  order  to  make 
scientific  studies  and  researches  in  common,  mystifying 
pranks  like  this  could  not  but  cast  a  slur  upon  the  respect 
due  to  science. 

Professor  Lombroso,  who  was  a  prey  both  to  doubt  and  to 
ideas  of  his  own  which  tormented  his  mind,  made  an  en- 
gagement to  be  present  at  further  meetings  on  his  return  to 
Naples  in  the  following  summer. 


150  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

M.  Ciolfi,  having  sent  these  two  reports  to  M.  Lombroso, 
the  eminent  professor  of  Turin  confirmed  their  accuracy  in 
the  following  letter,  dated  June  25,  1891 : — 

Dear  Sir, —  The  two  reports  that  you  have  sent  me  are 
of  the  utmost  accuracy.  I  add  that,  before  we  had  seen  the 
salver  turned  over,  the  medium  had  announced  that  she 
would  sprinkle  the  faces  of  those  who  sat  by  her  with  flour; 
and  everything  leads  to  the  belief  that  such  was  her  intention, 
but  that  she  was  not  able  to  realize  it, —  a  new  proof,  to  my 
mind,  of  her  perfect  honesty,  especially  considering  her 
semi-unconsciousness. 

I  am  filled  with  confusion  and  regret  that  I  combated 
with  so  much  persistence  the  possibility  of  the  facts  called 
Spiritualistic.  I  say  facts,  because  I  am  still  opposed  to  the 
theory. 

Please  give  my  greetings  to  M.  E.  Chiaia,  and,  if  it  is 
possible,  get  M.  Albini  to  examine  the  visual  field  and  the 
inner  recesses  of  the  eye  of  the  medium,  about  which  I  desire 
to  inform  myself. 

Yours  very  truly, 

C.  Lombroso. 

'  M.  Lombroso  soon  after  published  his  experiences  and 
reflections,  in  an  article  in  the  Annales  des  sciences  psy- 
chiques  (1892)  which  ends  thus: 

None  of  these  facts,  (which  we  must  admit,  because  no  one 
can  deny  things  which  he  has  seen)  is  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  lead  us  to  form  for  their  explanation  an  hypothesis  of  a 
world  different  from  that  admitted  by  the  neuro-patholo- 
gists. 

Above  all,  we  must  not  forget  that  Mme.  Eusapia  is  a 
neuropath ;  that  in  her  childhood  she  received  a  blow  on  the 
left  parietal  bone,  which  produced  a  hole  so  deep  that  you 
could  put  your  finger  in  it;  that  she  remained  subject  to  at- 
tacks of  epilepsy,  catalepsy,  and  hysteria,  which  take  place 
especially  during  the  seance  phenomena;  and  that,  finally, 
she  has  a  remarkable  obtuseness  of  touch. 


OTHER  S:^ANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         151 

Well,  I  do  not  see  anything  inadmissible  in  this, —  that 
in  the  case  of  hypnotic  and  hysterical  persons  the  excitation 
of  certain  centres,  which  become  powerful  by  the  paralysis 
of  all  the  others  and  then  provoke  a  transposition  and  a 
transmission  of  physical  forces,  may  also  produce  a  transfor- 
mation in  luminous  force  or  in  motive  force.  Thus  we 
understand  how^  the  force  in  a  medium  which  I  shall  call 
cortical  or  cerebral  may,  for  example,  lift  the  table,  pull 
somebody's  beard,  hit  him,  caress  him,  etc. 

During  the  transposition  of  senses  due  to  hypnotism, — 
when,  for  example,  the  nose  and  the  chin  see  (and  that  is  a 
fact  which  I  observed  with  my  owtl  eyes),  and  when  for 
some  moments  all  the  other  senses  are  paralyzed,  the  cortical 
centre  of  vision,  which  has  its  seat  in  the  brain,  acquires  such 
an  energy  that  it  supersedes  the  eye.  It  is  this  which  we 
have  been  able  to  prove,  Ottolenghi  and  I,  in  the  case  of 
three  hypnotized  persons,  by  making  use  of  the  lens  and  of 
the  prism. 

The  phenomena  observed  would  be  explained,  according 
to  this  theory,  by  a  transformation  of  the  powers  of  the 
medium.     Let  us  continue  our  account  of  the  experiments. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  testimony  of  Professor 
Lombroso,  several  savants  —  including  MM.  Schiaparelli,  di- 
rector of  the  observatory  at  Milan;  Gerosa,  professor  of 
physics;  Ermacora,  doctor  of  natural  philosophy;  Aksakof, 
councillor  of  state  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia;  Charles  du 
Prel,  doctor  of  philosophy  in  Munich ;  Dr.  Richet,  of  Paris, 
and  Professor  Buffern  —  met  in  October,  1892,  in  the  apart- 
ment of  M.  Einzi,  at  Milan,  to  renew  these  experiments. 
M.  Lombroso  was  present  at  several  of  the  soirees.  There 
were  seventeen  in  all. 

The  experimenters  present  signed  the  following  long 
declaration : 

The  results  obtained  did  not  always  come  up  to  our  ex- 
pectations.    Kot  that  we  did  not  secure  a  large  number  of 


152  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

facts  apparently  or  really  important  and  marvellous;  but, 
in  the  greater  number  of  eases,  we  were  not  able  to  apply 
the  rules  of  experimental  science  which,  in  other  fields  of 
obser\'ation,  are  regarded  as  indispensable  in  order  to  arrive 
at  certain  and  incontestable  results.  The  most  important 
of  these  rules  consists  in  changing,  one  after  the  other,  the 
methods  of  experiment,  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  out  the  true 
cause,  or  at  least  the  true  conditions  of  all  the  events.  Xow 
it  is  precisely  from  this  point  of  view  that  our  experiments 
seem  to  us  still  incomplete. 

It  is  very  true  that  the  medium,  to  prove  her  good  faith, 
often  voluntarily  proposed  to  change  some  feature  of  one  or 
the  other  experiment,  and  frequently  herself  took  the  initia- 
tive in  these  changes.  But  this  applied  only  to  things  that 
Were  apparently  indifferent,  according  to  our  way  of  seeing. 
On  the  contrary,  the  changes  which  seemed  to  us  necessary 
to  put  the  true  character  of  the  results  beyond  doubt,  either 
were  not  accepted  as  possible  or  ended  in  uncertain  results. 

We  do  not  believe  we  have  the  right  to  explain  these 
things  by  the  aid  of  insulting  assumptions,  which  many  still 
find  to  be  the  simplest  explanation,  and  of  which  some 
journals  have  made  themselves  champions.  We  think,  on 
the  contrary,  that  these  experiments  are  concerned  with  phe- 
nomena of  an  unknown  nature,  and  we  confess  that  we  do  not 
know  what  the  conditions  are  that  are  required  to  produce 
them.  To  desire  to  fix  these  conditions  in  our  own  right  and 
out  of  our  own  head  would  be  as  extravagant  as  to  pre- 
sume to  make  the  experiment  of  Torricelli's  barometer  with 
a  tube  closed  at  the  bottom,  or  to  make  electrostatic  exper- 
iments in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  humidity,  or  to  take 
a  photograph  by  exposing  the  sensitive  plate  in  full  light 
before  placing  it  in  the  camera.  However,  it  is  a  fact  that 
the  impossibility  of  varying  the  experiments  in  our  own 
way  has  diminished  the  w^orth  and  the  interest  of  the  results 
obtained,  by  depriving  them  of  that  rigorous  demonstration 
which  we  are  right  in  demanding  in  cases  of  this  kind,  or, 
rather,  to  which  we  ought  to  aspire. 

The  following  are  the  principal  phenomena  observed. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         153 

Levitation  of  One  Side  of  the  Table 

We  agreed  to  have  the  mediuni  sit  alone  at  the  table,  in 
full  light,  her  two  hands  placed  on  its  upper  surface  and  her 
sleeves  drawn  back  to  the  elbows. 

We  remained  standing  about  her,  and  the  space  above  and 
under  the  table  was  well  lighted.  Under  these  conditions 
the  table  rose  at  an  angle  of  twenty  to  forty  degrees,  and  so 
remained  for  some  minutes,  while  the  medium  was  holding 
her  legs  stretched  out  and  striking  her  feet  one  against  the 
other.  When  we  pressed  with  the  hand  upon  the  lifted  side 
of  the  table,  w^e  experienced  a  considerable  elastic  resist- 
ance. 

The  table  was  suspended  by  one  of  its  ends  to  a  dynamo- 
meter which  was  coupled  to  a  cord:  this  cord  was  tied  to  a 
small  beam  supported  upon  two  wardrobes. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  end  of  the  table  having  been 
lifted  six  and  a  half  inches,  the  dynamometer  showed  sev- 
enty-seven pounds.  The  medium  sat  at  the  same  narrow  end 
of  the  table,  with  her  hands  wholly  on  the  table,  to  the  right 
and  the  left  of  the  point  where  the  dynamometer  was  at- 
tached. Our  hands  formed  the  chain  upon  the  table,  with- 
out pressure:  they  would  not  have  been  able  in  any  case  to 
do  more  than  increase  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  the 
table.  On  the  contrary,  the  desire  was  expressed  that  the 
pressure  should  diminish,  and  soon  the  table  began  to  rise 
on  the  side  of  the  dynamometer.  M.  Gerosa,  who  was  fol- 
lowing the  marks  on  the  apparatus,  announced  this  diminu- 
tion, expressed  by  the  successive  figures  7%,  4^/2,  21/2?  0 
(pounds).  At  the  last  the  levitation  was  such  that  the 
dynamometer  rested  horizontally  on  the  table. 

Then  we  changed  the  conditions  by  putting  our  hands 
under  the  table.  The  medium,  especially,  put  hers,  not  un- 
der the  edge,  where  it  might  have  touched  the  vertical  bor- 
der-board and  exercised  a  push  downwards,  but  under  the 
rail  that  unites  the  feet,  and  touched  this,  not  with  the  palm, 
but  with  the  hack  of  the  hand.  Thus  all  the  hands  together 
could  only  have  diminished  the  traction  upon  the  dynamo- 
meter. Upon  the  desire  being  expressed  to  see  this  traction 
augment,  it  increased  from  7^/2  pounds  to  13  pounds.     Dur- 


154  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

ing  all  these  experiments  each  of  the  medium's  feet  rested 
under  the  foot  of  her  nearest  neighbor  to  right  or  left. 

Complete  Levitation  of  the  Table. 

It  was  natural  to  conclude  that  if  the  table,  in  apparent 
contradiction  to  the  law  of  gravity,  was  able  to  rise  partly, 
it  would  be  able  to  rise  entirely  from  the  floor.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  this  is  what  happened.  This  levitation,  one  of 
the  most  frequent  phenomena  that  occur  in  the  experiments 
with  Eusapia,  stood  a  most  satisfactory  examination. 

The  phenomenon  always  materialized  under  the  following 
conditions:  the  persons  seated  about  the  table  place  their 
hands  on  it,  and  form  the  chain;  each  hand  of  the  medium 
is  held  by  the  adjacent  hand  of  her  two  neighbors;  each  of 
her  feet  remains  imder  the  feet  of  her  neighbor,  who  also 
press  her  knees  with  theirs.  She  is  seated,  as  usual,  at  one  of 
the  small  ends  of  the  table,  a  position  least  favorable  for  a 
mechanical  levitation.  At  the  end  of  several  minutes  the  ta- 
ble makes  a  side  movement,  rises  first  to  the  right,  then  to 
the  left,  and  finally  mounts  off  of  its  four  feet  straight  into 
the  air,  and  lies  there  horizontally  (as  if  it  were  floating  on  a 
liquid),  ordinarily  at  a  height  of  from  4  to  8  inches  (in 
exceptional  cases  from  24  to  27  inches)  ;  then  falls  back 
and  rests  on  its  four  feet.  It  frequently  remains  in  the  air 
for  several  seconds,  and  while  there  also  makes  undulatory 
motions,  during  which  the  position  of  the  feet  under  the 
table  can  be  thoroughly  examined.  During  the  levitation 
the  right  hand  of  the  medium  often  leaves  the  table,  as  well 
as  that  of  her  neighbor,  and  is  held  in  the  air  above. 

In  order  the  better  to  observe  this  thing,  we  removed  one 
by  one  the  persons  placed  at  the  table,  recognizing  the 
truth  that  the  chain  formed  by  several  persons  was  neither 
necessary  for  this  phenomenon  nor  for  others.  Finally,  we 
left  only  a  single  person  with  the  medium,  seated  at  her 
left.  This  person  placed  her  foot  upon  Eusapia's  two  feet 
and  one  hand  upon  her  knees,  and  held  with  her  other  hand 
the  left  hand  of  the  medium.  Eusapia's  right  hand  was  on 
the  table,  in  full  view, —  though  sometimes  she  held  it  in  the 
air  during  the  levitation. 


Plate  VIII.     Drawing  from  Photograph,  Showing  Method  of 

Control  by  Professors  Lombroso  and  Richet  or 

Eusapia.     Table  Completely  Raised. 


!  OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         155 

As  the  table  remained  in  the  air  for  several  seconds,  it 
was  possible  to  obtain  several  photographs  of  the  perform- 
ance. Three  pieces  of  photographic  apparatus  were  working 
together  in  different  parts  of  the  room,  and  the  illumination 
was  furnished  bj  a  magnesium  light  at  the  opportune  mo- 
ment. Twenty  photographs  were  obtained,  some  of  which 
are  excellent.  Upon  one  of  them  (PI.  VIII)  we  see  Pro- 
fessor Eichet,  who  holds  one  hand,  the  knees,  and  a  foot  of 
the  medium.  The  other  hand  of  the  latter  is  held  by  Pro- 
fessor Lombroso.  The  table  is  shown  horizontally  lifted, — 
a  fact  proved  by  the  interval  between  the  extremity  of  each 
foot  and  the  extremity  of  the  corresponding  projected  shadow. 

In  all  the  experiments  which  precede,  we  gave  our  atten- 
tion principally  to  a  careful  inspection  of  the  position  of 
the  hands  and  the  feet  of  the  medium;  and,  in  this  respect, 
we  helieve  we  can  say  that  they  were  safe  from  all  criticism. 
Still,  a  scrupulous  sincerity  compels  us  to  mention  the  fact 
to  which  we  did  not  begin  to  call  attention  before  the  evening 
of  October  5,  but  which  probably  must  have  occurred  also  in 
the  preceding  experiments.  It  consists  in  tliis,  that  the  four 
feet  of  the  table  could  not  be  considered  as  perfectly  isolated 
during  the  levitation,  because  one  of  them  at  least  was  in 
contact  with  the  lower  edge  of  the  medium's  dress. 

On  this  evening  it  was  remarked  that  a  little  before  the 
levitation,  Eusapia's  skirt  was  inflated  on  the  left  side  until 
it  touched  the  foot  of  the  nearest  table.  One  of  us  having 
been  charged  with  the  duty  of  hindering  this  contact,  the 
table  was  unable  to  rise  as  before,  and  it  only  did  rise  when 
the  observer  intentionally  permitted  the  contact  to  take  place. 
This  is  shown  in  the  photographs  taken  during  this  experi- 
ment, and  also  in  those  in  which  the  table-foot  in  question  is 
visible  (after  a  fashion)  at  its  lower  extremity.  The  reader 
will  see  that  at  the  same  time  the  medium  had  her  hand 
placed  upon  the  upper  surface  of  the  table,  and  on  the  same 
side,  in  such  a  way  that  this  table-foot  was  under  her  in- 
fluence, as  much  in  its  lower  portion,  by  means  of  the  dress, 
as  in  the  upper  portion,  by  means  of  the  hand. 

Kow  in  what  way  is  it  possible  for  the  contact  of  a  light 
dress-stuff  with  the  lower  extremity  of  the  foot  of  a  table  to 
assist  in  the  levitation  ?     That  is  something  we  do  not  know. 


156  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

The  hypothesis  that  the  dress  may  conceal  a  solid  support, 
skilfully  introduced,  which  may  serve  as  a  temporary  sup- 
port for  the  foot  of  the  table,  is  a  very  poor  one. 

In  fact,  to  keep  the  whole  table  resting  on  this  one  foot 
through  the  influence  that  a  single  hand  could  produce  upon 
the  upper  surface  of  the  table  would  require  that  the  hand 
exercise  upon  the  table  a  very  strong  pressure,  one  that  we 
cannot  suppose  Eusapia  capable  of,  even  during  three  or 
four  seconds. 

We  convinced  ourselves  of  this  by  ourselves  making  proof 
of  it  with  the  same  table.* 

Movements  of  Objects  at  a  Distance,  witJiout  Contact  with 
Any  of  the  Persons  Present 

1.  Spontaneous  movements  of  objects. 

These  phenomena  were  observed  several  times  during  our 
seances.  It  often  happened  that  a  chair,  placed  for  this 
purpose  not  far  from  the  table,  between  the  medium  and  one 
of  her  neighbors,  began  to  move  about,  and  sometimes  came 
up  to  the  table.  A  remarkable  instance  occurred  in  the  sec- 
ond seance,  everything  being  all  the  time  in  full  light.  A 
heavy  chair,  weighing  twenty-two  pounds,  which  stood  a 
yard  from  the  table  and  behind  the  medium,  came  up  to  M. 
Schiaparelli,  who  was  seated  next  the  medium.  He  rose  to 
put  it  back  in  its  place ;  but  scarcely  was  he  seated  when  the 
chair  advanced  a  second  time  toward  him. 

2.  Movement  of  the  table  without  contact. 

*  However,  some  doubt  may  remain.  In  my  photographs,  also  (PL 
I.  and  VI.),  the  foot  of  the  table  at  the  left  of  the  medium  is  concealed. 
As  1  myself  was  at  this  very  place,  I  am  sure  that  the  medium  was 
unable  to  lift  the  table  with  her  foot,  for  this  foot  uas  held  under  mine, 
not  by  a  rod  or  by  any  support  whatever;  for  I  had  a  hand  upon  her 
legs,  tchich  did  not  move.  The  objection  is  moreover  refuted  by  the 
experiment  which  I  made  on  the  29th  of  March,  1906  (see  p.  6),  of  a 
levitation,  with  Eusapia  standing, —  an  experiment  which  had  been 
made  before  on  the  27th  of  July,  1897,  at  Monfort-rAmaury  (see  p. 
82),  the  feet,  very  naturally,  being  visible.  Hence  there  can  be  no 
doubt  whatever  about  the  complete  levitation  of  the  table  floating  in 
space,  Aksakof  obtained  a  levitation,  in  the  stances  at  Milan,  after 
having  tied  Eusapia's  feet  with  two  strings,  the  ends  of  which  were 
short  and  had  been  sealed  to  the  floor  very  near  each  foot. 

Farther  on  tlie  reader  will  be  given  proof  of  other  undeniable  in- 
stances, among  others,  at  pp.  164,  165. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         157 

It  was  desirable  to  obtain  this  pbenomenon  as  a  matter 
of  experiment.  Eor  that  purpose,  the  table  being  placed 
upon  casters,  the  feet  of  the  medium  were  watched,  as  has 
been  said,  and  all  of  the  sitters  formed  the  chain  with  their 
hands,  including  those  of  the  medium.  AVhen  the  table 
began  to  move,  we  all  lifted  our  hands,  without  breaking 
the  chain,  and  the  table  thus  isolated  made  several  move-, 
ments.     This  experiment  was  several  times  renewed. 

The  Fetching  of  Different  Objects,  the  Hands  of  the  Me- 
dium Being  tied  to  those  of  her  Neighbors. 

In  order  to  assure  ourselves  that  we  were  not  the  victims 
of  a  trick,  we  tied  the  hands  of  the  medium  by  a  string  to 
those  of  her  two  neighbors,  in  such  a  way  that  the  movements 
of  the  four  hands  would  reciprocally  control  each  other. 
The  length  of  the  cord  between  the  hands  of  the  medium  was 
from  eight  to  twelve  inches,  and  between  each  one  of  her 
hands  and  the  hands  of  her  neighbors  four  inches.  This 
distance  of  space  was  purposely  arranged  in  order  that  the 
hands  of  the  neighboring  persons  might,  in  addition,  readily 
hold  those  of  the  medium  during  the  convulsive  movements 
which  usually  agitate  her. 

The  tying  was  done  in  the  following  way:  we  took  three 
turns  of  the  string  around  each  wrist  of  the  medium,  without 
leaving  any  slack,  but  drawn  so  tightly  as  almost  to  give 
her  pain,*  and  then  we  tied  two  simple  knots.     This  was 

*I  hear  very  often  the  following  objection:  "I  shall  only  be- 
lieve in  mediums  who  are  not  remunerated;  all  those  who  are  paid  are 
under  suspicion."  Eusapia  belongs  to  these  last.  Being  without  for- 
tune, she  never  visits  a  city  unless  her  travelling  and  hotel  expenses 
are  paid.  She  also  loses  her  time,  and  is  submitted  to  a  not  very  agree- 
able inquisition.  For  my  part,  I  do  not  admit  the  above  objection  at 
all.  The  physical  and  intellectual  faculties  have  nothing  in  common 
with  money-getting.  It  will  be  said  that  the  medium  is  interested  in 
deceiving  and  tricking:  it  increases  her  fees.  But  there  are  a  good 
many  other  temptations  in  the  world.  I  have  seen  unpaid  mediums, 
men  and  women  of  society,  cheat  without  any  scruple,  from  pure  van- 
ity, or  for  a  purpose  still  less  fit  to  be  avowed, —  for  the  mere  pleas- 
ure of  trapping  some  one.  The  stances  of  Spiritualism  have  been  made 
to  serve  useful  and  agreeable  ends  in  fashionable  society  —  and  more 
than  one  marriage  has  originated  there. 

We  must  be  as  sceptical  about  one  class  of  mediums  as  about  an- 
other. 


158  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

done  in  order  that,  if  bj  any  artifice  the  hand  was  able  to 
release  itself  from  the  string,  the  three  turns  would  work 
against  it  and  the  hand  could  not  get  back  again  under  the 
string  as  it  was  before. 

A  little  bell  was  placed  upon  a  chair  behind  her.  The 
chain  was  formed,  and  her  hands  as  well  as  her  feet  were 
held  as  usual.  The  room  was  darkened  in  answer  to  the  re- 
quest that  the  little  bell  should  at  once  sound,  after  which 
we  were  to  untie  the  medium.  Immediately  we  heard 
the  chair  move,  describe  a  curve  upon  the  floor,  approach 
the  table,  and  presently  place  itself  upon  it.  The  bell  rang, 
then  was  thrown  upon  the  table.  The  light  having  been  at 
once  turned  on,  we  ascertained  that  the  knots  of  the  string 
were  in  perfect  order.  It  is  clear  that  the  fetching  on  of  the 
chair  was  not  produced  by  the  action  of  the  hands  of  the 
medium. 


Impressions  of  Fingers  obtained  on  Smolced  Paper. 

In  order  to  decide  if  we  had  to  do  with  a  human  hand .... 
or  with  any  other  way  of  dealing,  we  fixed  a  sheet  of  paper, 
blackened  with  the  smoke  of  a  lamp,  upon  the  table,  on  the 
side  opposite  that  of  the  medium,  and  expressed  a  wish  that 
the  hand  would  leave  an  impression  on  it,  that  the  hand  of 
the  medium  should  remain  unsoiled,  and  that  the  lampblack 
be  transferred  to  the  hands  of  one  of  us.  The  hands  of  the 
medium  were  held  by  those  of  IIM.  Schiaparelli  and  Du 
Prel.  The  chain  was  made  in  the  darkness,  then  we  heard 
a  hand  lightly  tap  upon  the  table,  and  presently  M.  Du  Prel 
announced  that  his  left  hand,  which  he  held  on  the  right 
hand  of  M.  Einzi,  had  had  the  sensation  of  fingers  rubbing 
it.  As  soon  as  the  room  was  lighted,  we  found  upon  the 
paper  several  imprints  of  fingers,  and  the  back  of  M.  Du 
Prel's  hand  was  covered  with  lampblack;  hut  the  hands  of 
the  medium,  examined  then  and  there,  had  no  trace  of  it. 
This  experience  was  repeated  three  times.  When  we  insisted 
upon  having  a  complete  impression,  we  obtained  five  fingers 
upon  a  second  sheet  of  paper,  and  upon  a  third  the  impres- 
sion of  almost  an  entire  left  hand.     After  that  the  back  of 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         159 

M.  Du  Prel's  hand  was  completely  blackened,  the  hands  of 
the  medium  remaining  perfectly  clean. 

lApparition  of  Hands  upon  a  Dimly  Lighted  Background 

We  placed  upon  the  table  a  large  cardboard  covered  with 
a  phosphorescent  substance  (sulphide  of  calcium),  and  we 
placed  other  pieces  of  cardboard  upon  chairs  in  different 
; parts  of  the  chamber.  Under  such  conditions  we  saw  very 
plainly  the  outline  of  a  hand  imposed  on  the  cardboard  of 
the  table.  Upon  the  background  formed  by  the  other  pieces 
we  saw  the  shadow  of  the  hand  pass  and  repass  around  us. 

On  the  evening  of  September  21  one  of  us  several  times 
saw  the  image,  not  of  one,  but  of  two  hands  at  once,  thrown 
upon  the  glass  panes  of  a  feebly  illuminated  window  (out- 
side it  was  night,  but  the  darkness  was  not  complete). 
These  hands  exhibited  a  rapid  tremulous  motion,  but  not  so 
rapid  as  to  hinder  us  from  seeing  the  outline  clearly.  They 
were  wholly  opaque  and  were  thrown  upon  the  window  as 
absolutely  black  silhouettes. 

This  simultaneous  appearance  of  two  hands  is  very  signi- 
ficant, for  they  cannot  be  explained  on  the  hypothesis  of  a 
trick  of  the  medium,  who  would  not  have  been  able  in  any 
way  to  free  more  than  one  of  her  hands,  owing  to  the 
surveillance  of  those  who  sat  beside  her.  The  same  conclu- 
sion applies  to  the  clapping  of  two  hands,  one  against  the 
other,  which  was  several  times  heard  in  the  air. 

The  Levitation  of  the  Medium  to  the  Top  of  the  Table 

We  regard  this  levitation  as  among  the  most  important 
and  most  significant  of  Spiritualistic  achievements.  It  took 
place  twice,  on  September  28  and  October  3.  The  medium 
was  seated  at  one  end  of  the  table,  uttering  deep  groans, 
and  was  lifted  up  with  her  chair  and  placed  upon  the  table, 
not  moving  from  her  position,  those  next  her  still  holding  her 
hands  as  she  rose. 

On  the  evening  of  September  28,  while  her  two  hands  were 
held  by  MM.  Eichet  and  Lombroso,  the  medium  complained 
of  their  grasping  her  under  the  arm.     Then,  in  a  state  of 


160  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES  || 

trance  she  said,  with,  the  changed  voice  which  she  usually 
has  while  in  this  state,  ''  Xow  I  bring  up  my  medium  upon  ,  . 
the  table.''  At  the  end  of  two  or  three  seconds  the  chair,  i^^ 
with  the  medium  seated  in  it,  was  not  thro^vn,  but  lifted  !-^ 
with  precaution  and  placed  upon  the  table.  MM.  Richet  ^^ 
and  Lombroso  are  sure  they  did  not  assist  her  in  this  ascen-  W 
sion.  After  she  had  spoken,  being  all  the  time  in  a  state  |j  ^ 
of  trance,  the  medium  announced  her  descent,  and  (M.  1^^ 
Finzi  being  substituted  for  M.  Lombroso)  was  placed  upon  W 
the  floor  with  care  and  precision,  MM.  Richet  and  Finzi  fol- 
lowing her  movements  without  at  all  assisting  them. 

Moreover,  during  the  descent,  both  gentlemen  felt  a  hand 
touching  them  lightly  several  times  upon  the  head.  On 
the  evening  of  October  3  the  same  phenomenon  was  repeated 
in  similar  circumstances.  P 


ToucMngs 

Some  of  these  merit  particular  notice,  owing  to  a  circum- 
stance capable  of  giving  us  an  interesting  notion  of  their 
possible  origin.  Our  first  business  is  to  describe  the  touch- 
ings  which  were  felt  by  persons  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
hands  of  the  medium.  Thus,  on  the  evening  of  October  6, 
M.  Gerosa,  who  was  separated  from  the  medium  by  three 
places  (about  four  feet,  the  medium  being  a  little  to  one 
side  and  M.  Gerosa  in  one  of  the  adjacent  comers  at  the 
opposite  short  end  of  the  table),  having  lifted  his  hand  that 
it  might  be  touched,  felt  a  hand  strike  his  own  several  times 
to  make  him  lower  it;  and,  as  he  persisted,  he  was  hit  with 
a  trumpet,  which  an  instant  before  had  been  making  sounds 
in  the   air. 

In  the  second  place,  we  must  note  touchings  which  con- 
stitute very  delicate  operations,  and  which  cannot  be  made 
in  the  darkness  with  the  precision  which  we  have  noted  in 
them.  Twice  (on  September  16  and  21)  M.  Schiaparelli 
had  his  spectacles  removed  from  his  nose  and  laid  down  on 
the  table  before  another  person.  These  glasses  are  fixed  to 
the  ears  by  means  of  two  springs,  and  a  certain  amount  of 
attention  is  necessary  in  order  to  remove  them,  even  to  one 
working  in  full  light.     Yet  they  were  removed  in  complete 


I 


OTHER  SEA:N^CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         161 

darkness  with  so  much  delicacy  and  promptness  that  the  said 
experimenter  only  perceived  the  loss  of  them  when  he  no 
longer  had  the  usual  feeling  of  them  on  his  nose,  on  his  tem- 
ples, and  behind  his  ears^  and  he  was  obliged  to  feel  with  his 
hands  in  order  to  be  sure  that  they  were  no  longer  in  their 
usual  place. 

Many  other  touchings  produced  similar  effects,  and  were 
executed  with  extreme  delicacy;  for  example,  when  one  of 
the  company  felt  his  hair  and  beard  stroked. 

In  all  of  the  innumerable  manoeuvres  executed  by  myste- 
rious hands,  there  was  never  any  awkward  stumbling  or  col- 
lision to  be  noted,  though  ordinarily  this  is  inevitable  when 
one  is  working  in  the  dark.  I  may  add,  in  this  connection, 
that  bodies  tolerably  heavy  and  bulky,  such  as  chairs  and  ves- 
sels full  of  clay,  were  deposited  upon  the  table  without  hav- 
ing collided  with  any  of  the  numerous  hands  resting  upon  the 
table, —  a  particularly  difficult  thing  in  the  case  of  chairs 
which,  owing  to  their  dimensions,  occupied  a  large  part  of 
the  table.  A  chair  w^as  turned  over  on  its  face  upon  the 
table  and  lay  there  at  full  length  without  causing  the  least 
annoyance  to  anybody;  and  yet  it  covered  almost  the  entire 
surface. 

Contact  with  a  Human  Face 

One  of  us  having  expressed  the  wish  to  be  kissed,  felt  be- 
fore his  very  mouth  the  peculiar  quick  sounds  of  a  kiss,  but 
not  accompanied  by  any  contact  of  lips.  This  happened 
twice.  On  three  different  occasions  one  of  the  experimenters 
felt  the  touch  of  a  face  with  hair  and  beard.  The  feeling 
of  the  skin  was  exactly  that  of  a  living  man.  The  hair  was 
much  coarser  and  more  bristly  than  that  of  the  medium,  and 
the  beard  seemed  very  soft  and  delicate. 

Such  are  the  experiments  made  at  Milan  in  1892  by  the 
group  of  savants  cited  above. 

How  can  we  help  admitting,  after  the  reading  of  this  new 
official  report,  the  following  things  ? 

1.  The  complete  levitation  of  the  tables. 

2.  The  levitation  of  the  medium. 


162  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

3.  The  movement  of  objects  without  contact. 

4.  Accurate  and  delicate  touches  made  by  invisible  or- 
gans. 

5.  The  formation  of  hands  and  even  of  human  figures. 
These  phenomena  take  their  place  in  this  book  as  things 

which  were  observed  with  the  most  scrupulous  care. 

Let  us  note  also  the  action  of  the  little  piece  of  furniture 
(chair  or  round  table),  which  tries  to  climb  up  on  one  of  the^ 
company  or  upon  the  large  table, —  a  thing  also  observed  by 
myself.  (] 

Although  the  savants  of  the  Milan  group  regretted  that 
they  did  not  make  experiments,  but  only  ohservations  (I 
said  above  (p.  20),  what  we  ought  to  think  about  this),  the 
facts  were  none  the  less  proved. 

I  will  add  that  after  the  reading  of  this  proces-verhal,  the 
cautious  reserves  of  M.  Schiaparelli  seem  exaggerated.  If 
fraud  has  sometimes  crept  in,  still  what  has  been  accurately 
observed  remains  safe  and  sound  and  is  an  acquisition  to 
science. 

Our  medium,  Eusapia,  has  been  the  subject  of  a  fruitful 
series  of  experiments.  Let  me  also  mention  those  of  l^aples 
in  1893,  under  the  direction  of  M.  Wagner,  Professor  of 
Zoology  at  the  University  of  St.  Petersburg;  that  of  Rome 
in  1893-189-1,  under  the  direction  of  M.  de  Siemiradski, 
correspondent  of  the  Institute;  those  of  Varsovie,  from  the 
25th  of  November,  1893,  to  the  15th  of  January,  1891,  at 
the  house  of  Dr.  Ochorowicz;  those  of  Carqueiranne  and  of 
Tile  Roubaud,  in  1894,  at  the  house  of  Professor  Richet; 
those  of  Cambridge  in  August,  1895,  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Myers ;  those  of  the  villa  de  I'Agnellas,  from  the  20th  to  the 
29th  of  September,  1895,  at  the  house  of  Colonel  de  Rochas; 
those  of  Autcuil,  in  September,  1896,  at  the  house  of  M. 
Marcel  Mangin,  etc.     It  would  be  entirely  superfluous  and 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         163 

au  unconscionably  long  task  to  analyze  them  all.     Let  ns 
merely  select  some  special  characteristic  instances. 

In  the  report  of  M.  de  Siemiradski  we  read  as  follows: 

In  the  corner  of  the  hall  there  was  a  piano,  placed  to  the 
left  of  Ochorowicz  and  Eusapia,  and  a  little  in  the  rear. 
Some  one  desired  to  hear  the  keyboard  touched.  We  at 
once  hear  the  moving  of  the  piano.  Ochorowicz  can  even 
see  the  displacement,  thanks  to  a  ray  of  light  which  falls 
upon  the  polished  surface  of  the  instrument  through  the 
window  shutters.  The  piano  then  opens  noisily,  and  we  hear 
the  bass  notes  of  the  keyboard  sounding.  I  utter  aloud  my 
desire  to  hear  high  notes  and  low  notes  touched  at  the  same 
time,  as  a  proof  that  the  unknown  force  can  act  at  the  two 
ends  of  the  keyboard.  My  wish  is  granted,  and  we  hear  bass 
notes  and  treble  notes  sounded  at  the  same  time,  which  seems 
to  prove  the  action  of  two  distinct  hands.  Then  the  instru- 
ment advances  toward  its.  It  presses  against  our  group, 
and  we  are  obliged  to  get  up  and  move  back  with  our  ex- 
periment table,  and  we  do  not  stop  until  we  have  thus  moved 
back  several  yards. 

A  glass  half  full  of  water,  which  stands  on  a  buffet,  out 
of  reach  of  our  hands,  was  carried  by  an  unknown  power  to 
the  lips  of  Ochorowicz,  Eusapia,  and  another  person,  who  all 
drank  of  it.  This  performance  took  place  in  complete  dark- 
ness and  with  astonishing  precision. 

We  were  able  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  real  hand  not  be- 
longing to  any  one  present.  We  did  it  by  means  of  the  plas- 
ter cast  and  mould,  as  follows : 

Having  placed  a  heavy  basin  filled  with  modelling-clay 
upon  the  large  table  in  the  middle  of  the  dining-room,  we 
sat  down  with  Eusapia  around  the  little  experiment-table 
more  than  a  yard  distant.  After  some  minutes  of  waiting, 
the  basin  came  of  itself  and  stood  on  our  table!  Eusapia 
groaned,  writhed,  and  trembled  in  all  her  limbs ;  yet  not  for 
a  moment  did  her  hands  quit  ours.  Then  she  cried,  ''  E 
fatto"  (^^  It  is  done").  The  candle  is  lighted  again,  and 
we  find  an  irregular  hollowed  place  upon  the  surface  of  the 
clay.  This  hollow  place,  afterward  filled  with  plaster,  gives 
us  a  perfect  cast  of  the  contracted  fingers  of  a  hand. 


164  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 


! 


We  placed  upon  the  table  a  plate  smeared  with  lampblack. 
The  mysterious  hand  left  there  the  print  of  the  end  of  its 
fingers.  The  hands  of  the  experimenters,  including  those 
of  Eusapia,  remained  white.  We  next  induced  the  medium 
to  reproduce  the  impression  of  her  own  hand  upon  another 
lamp-smoked  plate.  She  did  so.  The  layer  of  soot  re- 
moved by  her  fingers  had  deeply  blackened  them.  A  com- 
parison of  the  two  plates  enabled  us  to  prove  a  striking  re- 
semblance,—  that  is  to  say  (to  speak  more  accurately),  the 
identity  of  the  arrangement  of  the  spiral  circles  in  the  epi- 
dermis of  the  two  hands ;  and  we  know  that  the  arrangement 
of  these  circles  is  unique  in  every  individual.  This  is  a 
particular  which  speaks  eloquently  in  favor  of  the  hypothesis 
of  the  double  personality  of  the  medium. 

In  order  mechanically  to  control  the  movements  of  Eu- 
sapia's  feet,  Dr.  Ochorowicz  employed  the  following  piece 
of    apparatus.     Two    deep    and    narrow    cigar-boxes    were 
placed  under  the  table,  and  Eusapia  put  her  unshod  feet 
into  them.     The  boxes  had  double  bottoms  and  were  pro- 
vided with  an  electrical  arrangement  of  such  a  nature  that 
she  could  move  her  feet  freely  for  some  inches  in  every  di- 
rection ;  but,  if  she  wished  to  withdraw  them  from  the  box, 
the  electric  bell  tinkled  before  she  had  moved  them  half 
way  to  the  top,  and  only  stopped  when  they  were  returned 
to  their  place.     Eusapia  cannot  remain  utterly  quiet  during 
the  seances.     So  she  was  given  a  certain  freedom  of  move- 
ment ;  but  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  make  use  of  her  legs 
for   lifting  the   table.      Under  these    conditions   the   table, 
weighing  twenty-five  pounds,  rose  up  twice  without  the  hell 
being  heard.     During  the  second  levitation  the  table  was 
photographed  underneath.      (The  four  feet  of  the  table  are 
seen  in  the  photograph.     The  left  is  in  contact  with  Eu- 
sapia's  dress,  as  is  always  the  case  when  the  light  is  strong; 
but  the  boxes  holding  the  feet  of  the  medium  are  in  their 
place.)     Then  the  experimenters  verified  the  fact  that  the 


i 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         165 

"bell  was  heard,  not  only  when  she  removed  her  foot,  hut 
when  she  lifted  it  too  high  in  the  hox. 

After  all  these  demonstrations,  I  will  not  do  my  readers 
the  wrong  of  thinking  that  the  levitation  of  the  table  is  not 
MOEE  THAN  PROVED  for  all  of  them. 

Here,  now,  is  a  curious  observation  relative  to  the  infla- 
!  tion  of  the  curtain :  Ten  persons  were  seated  around  the 
I  table.  Eusapia  had  her  back  turned  to  the  curtain ;  she  was 
I  controlled  by  General  Starynkiewicz  and  Dr.  Watraszewski. 

I  was  seated  (writes  M.  Glowacki-Prus)  opposite  Eusapia, 
near  Mile.  X.,  a  very  nervous  person  and  easily  hypnotized. 
The  seance  had  lasted  for  about  an  hour,  with  numerous  and 
varied  phenomena.  Eusapia,  as  always,  was  in  a  semi-con- 
scious state.  Suddenly  she  awoke,  and  Mile.  X.  uttered 
a  cry.  Knowing  what  this  cry  meant,  I  grasped  her  hand 
with  great  force  and  then  put  my  arm  about  her;  for  this 
girl  becomes  very  strong  in  certain  states.  The  room  was 
well  lighted,  and  this  is  what  we  saw  (something,  be  it  noted, 
which  I  myself  experienced  by  my  hands).  Every  time  that 
the  muscles  of  Mile.  X.  became  more  tense  and  rigid,  the 
curtain  which  hung  opposite  her,  at  a  distance  of  from  seven 
to  ten  feet,  made  a  movement.  The  following  table  indi- 
cates the  details  of  this  correlation: 

Feeble  tension  of  the  muscles  .  .  The  curtain  is  set  in  mo- 
tion. 

Strong  tension It  bellies  out  like  a  sail. 

Very  strong  tension,  cries It  reaches  as  far  as  Eusa- 

pia's  controllers,  and  al- 
most wholly  covers  them. 

Repose    Repose. 

Tension  of  the  muscles Movement  of  the  curtain. 

Strong  tension Strong  inflation  of  the  cur- 
tain. 

This  tabular  view  presents  the  striking  proportion  which 
I  ascertained  between  the  tension  of  the  medium's  muscles 


166  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 


« 


(who  in  this  case  was  Mile.  X.)  and  the  mechanical  work 
of  the  curtain  in  movement. 

This  experiment  is  so  much  the  more  interesting  since  it 
was  not  Eusapia  who  made  it ;  and,  if  she  had  a  trick  for  in- 
flating the  portieres,  it  was  not  employed  in  this  case.  We 
already  know  that  she  had  none. 

Here  are  the  conclusions  of  M.  Ochorowicz : 

1.  I  did  not  find  any  proofs  in  favor  of  the  Spiritualistic 
hypothesis;  that  is  to  say,  in  favor  of  the  intervention  of 
an  intelligence  other  than  that  of  the  medium.  "  John  "  is 
for  me  only  a  psychic  double  of  the  medium.  Consequently, 
I  am  not  a  Spiritualist. 

2.  Mediumistic  phenomena  are  confirmatory  of  ^^  magnet- 
ism "  as  opposed  to  "  hypnotism '' ;  that  is  to  say,  they  im- 
ply the  existence  of  a  fluidic  action  apart  from  suggestion. 

3.  Still,  suggestion  plays  an  important  role  in  them,  and 
the  medium  is  only  a  mirror  reflecting  the  forces  and  the 
ideas  of  those  present.  Moreover,  she  possesses  the  power 
of  realizing  her  own  somnambulistic  visions  or  those  sug- 
gested by  the  comj)any,  simply  by  the  process  of  externaliz- 
ing them. 

4.  Ko  purely  physical  force  explains  these  phenomena, 
which  are  always  of  a  psycho-physical  nature,  having  a  cen- 
tre of  action  in  the  mind  of  the  medium. 

5.  The  phenomena  proved  do  not  contradict  either  me- 
chanics in  general  or  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  forces 
in  particular.  The  medium  acts  at  the  expense  of  her  own 
proper  powers  and  at  the  expense  of  those  of  the  persons 
present. 

6.  There  exists  a  series  of  transitions  between  medium- 
ship  of  an  inferior  kind  (automatism,  unconscious  fraud) 
and  mediumship  of  a  superior  kind  or  externalization  of 
motivity  (action  at  a  distance  without  visible  and  palpable 
connecting  link). 

7.  The  hypothesis  of  a  "fluidic  double''  (astral  body), 
which,  under  certain  conditions,  detaches  itself  and  acts  in- 
dependently of  the  body  of  the  medium,  seems  necessary  for 


i 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         167 

the  explanation  of  the  greater  part  of  the  phenomena.  Ac- 
cording to  this  conception,  the  moving  of  objects  without  con- 
tact would  be  produced  by  the  fluidic  limbs  of  the  medium.* 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  an  eminent  English  physicist,  rector 
of  the  University  of  Birmingham,  says  that,  on  the  invita- 
tion of  Dr.  Eichet,  he  went  to  attend  the  experiments  at 
Carqueiranne,  thoroughly  convinced  that  he  should  not  see 
there  any  instance  of  physical  movement  without  contact; 
but  that  what  he  saw  completely  convinced  him  that  phe- 
nomena of  that  kind  can  have,  under  certain  conditions,  a 
real  and  objective  existence.  He  vouches  for  the  follow- 
ing verified  facts: 

1.  Movements  of  a  chair  at  a  distance,  seen  by  the  light 
of  the  moon,  and  in  circumstances  w^hich  proved  that  there 
was  no  mechanical  connection. 

2.  The  inflation  and  the  movement  of  a  curtain  in  the 
absence  of  wind  or  of  any  other  ostensible  cause. 

3.  The  automatic  winding  up  and  moving  about  of  a 
music-box. 

4.  Sounds  proceeding  from  a  piano  and  from  an  accor- 
dion which  had  not  been  touched. 

5.  A  key  turned  in  a  lock,  on  the  inside  of  the  room 
where  the  seances  WTre  held,  then  placed  upon  the  table, 
and  again  put  back  into  the  lock. 

6.  The  overturning,  by  means  of  slow  and  correct  evolu- 
tions, of  a  heavy  moving  table,  which  was  afterwards  found 

'  thus  turned  upside  down. 

'       7.  The  levitation  of  a  heavy  table,  under  conditions  in 

which  it  w^ould  have  been  impossible  to  lift  it  in  ordinary 
t  circumstances. 
!       8.  The  appearance  of  blue  marks  upon  a  table  previously 

spotless,   and   this   done   without  the  help   of  the   ordinary 

methods  of  writing. 

9.  The  sensation  of  blows,  as  if  some  one  were  striking  the 

I        *  These   reports    were    published    in    detail    in    the    work    of   M.    de 
Rochas  on  The  Externalization  of  Motivity,  4th  edition,  1906,  p.  170. 


168  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

head,  the  arms,  or  the  back,  while  the  head,  the  hands, 
and  the  feet  of  the  medium  were  plainly  in  view  or  held 
apart  from  the  portions  of  the  body  that  were  touched. 

It  is  plain  enough  what  part  the  above  statements  play  in 
our  argument.  They  are  throughout  simply  confirmations 
of  the  experiments  described  above. 

At  Cambridge,  Eusapia  w^as  taken  in  the  very  act  of  de- 
ception; namely,  the  substitution  of  hands.  While  the  con- 
trollers believed  that  they  were  holding  her  tw^o  hands,  they 
were  only  holding  one  of  them :  the  other  Avas  free.  So  these 
experimenters  at  Cambridge  unanimously  declared  that 
"  everything  was  fraud,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end/'  in 
Eusapia  Paladino's  twenty  seances. 

In  a  paper  sent  to  M.  de  Rochas,  M.  Ochorowicz  con- 
tested this  radical  conclusion,  for  several  reasons.  Eusapia 
is  very  susceptible  to  suggestion,  and,  by  indulging  her  in- 
clination to  fraud  and  not  hindering  it,  they  incite  her  to  it 
still  more  by  a  kind  of  tacit  encouragement.  Moreover,  her 
fraud  is  generally  of  an  unconscious  kind.  I  append  here, 
as  a  particular  illustration  of  this,  a  rather  typical  story 
about  her: 

One  evening,  at  Varsovie  (says  M.  Ochorowicz),  Eu- 
sapia is  sleeping  in  her  chamber  by  the  side  of  ours.  I  have 
not  yet  gone  to  sleep,  when  suddenly  I  hear  her  rising  and 
moving  about  with  bare  feet  in  the  drawing-room.  Then 
she  enters  her  chamber  again  and  approaches  our  door.  I 
make  a  sign  to  Mme.  Ochorowicz,  who  has  waked  up,  to  be 
quiet  and  to  observe  carefully  what  is  going  to  take  place. 
A  moment  after,  Eusapia  gently  opens  the  door,  comes  up 
to  my  wife's  toilet-table,  opens  a  drawer,  shuts  it,  and  goes 
away,  carefully  avoiding  making  any  noise.  I  hastily  dress 
myself  and  we  enter  her  chamber.  Eusapia  is  quietly  sleep- 
ing.    The  liglit  of  our  candle  seems  to  wake  her. 

"  What  were  you  hunting  for  in  our  sleeping-room  ?  " 
'     "  I  ?     I  haven't  left  this  place." 


OTHER  SEAlSrCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         169 

Seeing  the  uselessness  of  fiirtiier  questions,  we  go  to  bed 
again,  advising  her  to  sleep  quietly. 

Xext  day  I  ask  her  the  same  question.  She  is  very  much 
astonished  and  even  troubled  (she  blushes  slightly). 

"  How  should  I  dare/'  said  she,  ^'  to  enter  your  chamber 
during  the  night  ?  " 

This  accusation  is  very  painful  to  her,  and  she  tries  to 
persuade  us  by  all  kinds  of  insufficient  reasons  that  we  are 
wrong.  She  denies  the  whole  thing,  and  I  am  obliged  to 
admit  that  she  does  not  remember  getting  up  or  even  having 
conversed  with  us  (it  was  just  another  somnambulistic  state). 

I  take  a  little  table,  and  direct  Eusapia  to  put  her  hands 
on  it. 

"  Very  well,''  says  she,  ''  John  will  tell  you  that  I  don't 
lie." 

I  then  ask  the  following  questions : 

*^  Is  it  you,  John,  who  came  into  our  sleeping  chamber 
last  night  ? " 

"  E'o." 

"Was  it  the  chambermaid?  "  (I  suggest  this  idea  for 
the  express  purpose  of  testing  John's  veracity.) 

"  :^o,"  says  he. 

"  Was  it  the  medium  herself  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  says  the  table. —  "  Iso,  it  is  not  true,  "  exclaims 
Eusapia,  seeing  her  hope  banished  — "  Yes,"  replies  the  table, 
forcibly. 

"  Was  she  in  the  trance  state  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  In  her  normal  state  ?  " 

"  Xo." 

"  In  a  spontaneous  somnambulistic  state  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Eor  what  purpose  ?  " 

"^  She  ivas  hunting  inatches;  for  she  was  frightened  in  her 
sleep,  and  didn't  ivant  to  sleep  without  light." 

Sure  enough,  there  were  always  matches  in  the  drawer 
opened  by  Eusapia,  except  on  this  particular  night.  She 
therefore  returned  without  getting  any. 

While  listening  to  the  explanation  of  the  table,  Eusapia 
shrugged  her  shoulders,  but  protested  no  longer. 


170  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Here,  then,  is  a  woman  who,  from  time  to  time,  has  the 
power  of  passing  from  one  psychical  state  to  another.  Is  it 
just  to  accuse  such  a  creature  of  premeditated  fraud,  with-" 
out  the  slightest  medical  and  psychological  examination, 
without  the  least  attempt  at  verification?     .     .     . 

M.  Ochorowicz  adds  here  that,  so  far  as  he  is  concerned, 
the  phenomena  are  not  produced  hy  a  personality  different 
from  that  of  the  medium,  nor  hy  a  new  independent  occult 
force;  hut  it  is  a  special  psychic  condition  which  permits 
the  vital  dynamism  of  the  medium  (the  astral  body  of  the 
occultists)  to  act  at  a  distance,  under  certain  exceptional 
conditions.  It  is  the  only  hypothesis  which  seems  necessary 
in  the  actual  state  of  our  knowledge. 

Why  does  the  medium  so  often  try  to  release  her  hand? 
So  far  as  the  Cambridge  experimenters  are  concerned,  the 
cause  is  very  simple  and  always  the  same:  she  releases  her 
hand  in  order  to  indulge  in  tricks.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  reasons  why  she  frees  her  hand  are  many  and  compli- 
cated. 

Dr.  Ochorowicz's  explanations  are  as  follows; 

1.  Let  me  observe,  in  the  first  place,  that  Eusapia  fre- 
quently releases  her  hand  for  no  other  reason  than  to  touch 
her  head,  which  is  in  pain  at  the  moment  of  the  manifesta- 
tions. It  is  a  natural  reflex  movement ;  and,  in  her  case,  it 
is  a  fixed  habit.  Since,  more  often  than  not,  she  does  not 
notice  that  she  is  doing  it,  or  at  least  fails  to  give  warning 
to  her  controller,  the  darkness  justifies  suspicions. 

2.  Immediately  before  the  mediumistic  doubling  of  her 
personality,  her  hand  is  affected  with  hypergesthesia  and, 
consequently,  the  pressure  of  the  hand  of  another  makes 
her  ill,  especially  in  the  dorsal  quarter.  She  then  most 
frequently  places  the  hand  which  is  to  be  mediumistically 
active  above  and  not  below  that  of  the  controller,  trying  to 
touch  it  as  little  as  possible.  When  the  doubling  of  the 
personality  is  complete,  and  the  dynamic  hand  more  or  less 


OTHER  SEAXCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         171 

materialized,  that  of  the  medium  contracts  and  rests  heavily 
upon  the  controller,  exactly  at  the  moment  that  the  phenome- 
non takes  place.  She  is  then  almost  insensible  and  all 
shrunken  together.  In  very  good  mediumistic  conditions 
the  doubling  is  easy  and  the  initial  hypersesthesia  of  short 
duration.  In  this  case  the  medium  allows  her  hand  to  be 
completely  covered  and  the  feet  of  the  controllers  to  be  upon 
hers,  as  was  always  the  case  in  our  seances  at  Rome  in  1893 ; 
but,  since  that  time,  she  can  no  longer  endure  that  position, 
and  rather  prefers  to  be  held  by  hands  under  the  table. 

3.  In  accordance  with  psychological  laws,  the  hand  al- 
ways proceeds  automatically  in  the  direction  of  our  thoughts 
(Cumberlandism).  The  medium  acts  by  auto-suggestion, 
and  the  order  to  go  as  far  as  an  indicated  point  is  given  by 
her  brain  simultaneously  to  the  dynamic  hand  and  the  cor- 
poreal hand,  since  in  the  normal  state  they  form  only  one^ 
And  since,  immediately  after  the  hypergesthesia,  the  muscu 
lar  sensation  is  excited  and  the  hand  grows  benumbed,  it 
sometimes  happens  (especially  when  the  medium  proceeds 
carelessly  and  does  not  properly  govern  her  movements) 
that  the  dynamic  hand  remains  in  place,  while  her  own  hand 
goes  in  the  indicated  direction.  The  former,  not  being  yet 
materialized,  produces  only  a  semblance  of  pressure;  and 
another  person,  able  to  see  a  little  in  the  darkness,  will  per- 
ceive nothing  of  it,  and  will  even  be  able  to  ascertain  by 
touch  the  absence  of  the  medium's  hand  from  that  of  thQ 
controller.  At  the  same  time  the  hand  of  the  medium  is 
going  in  the  direction  of  the  object ;  and  still  it  may  happen 
that  it  does  not  really  reach  it,  acting,  as  it  does,  at  a  dis- 
tance, by  a  dynamic  prolongation. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  I  explain  the  cases  in  which  tha 
hand,  being  released,  has  not  yet  been  able  to  reach  the 
point  aimed  at  (physically  inaccessible),  as  well  as  the 
numerous  experiments  made  at  Yarsovie  in  full  light,  with 
a  little  bell  hung  in  different  ways,  with  compasses  of  dif- 
ferent forms,  with  a  very  small  table,  etc., —  experiments  in 
which  Eusapia's  fingers  were  quite  near,  but  did  not  touch, 
the  object.  I  proved  that  there  was  no  electric  force  at  work 
in  these  cases,  but  that  things  occurred  as  if  the  arms  of 
the  medium  were  lengthened  and  acted  invisibly,  but  me- 


1Y2  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

chanically.  At  Varsovie,  when  one  of  my  friends  M. 
Glowacki,  took  it  into  his  head  "  that  it  was  necessary  to 
give  the  medium  free  rein,  in  order  to  discover  her  method," 
we  had  an  entirely  fraudulent  seance  and  lost  our  time  to  no 
purpose.  On  the  contrary,  in  a  poor  seance  at  I'ile  Rou- 
baud,  we  obtained  some  good  phenomena  after  having 
frankly  told  the  medium  that  she  was  cheating. 

And  here  are  the  conclusions  of  the  author  upon  "  the 
Cambridge  frauds  " ; 

1.  ISTot  only  was  conscious  fraud  not  proved  on  Eusapia 
at  Cambridge,  but  not  the  slightest  effort  was  made  to  do  so. 

2.  Unconscious  fraud  was  proved  in  much  larger  propor- 
tions than  in  all  the  preceding  experiments. 

3.  This  negative  result  is  vindicated  by  a  blundering 
method  little  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  phe- 
nomena. 

Such  is  also  the  opinion  of  Dr.  J.  Maxwell,  and  of  all 
who  are  competent  judges  of  the  question. 

To  sum  up,  we  see  that  the  influence  of  preconceived 
ideas,  opinions,  and  sentiments,  upon  the  production  of  phe- 
nomena, is  certain.  When  all  the  experimenters  have  nearly 
the  same  sympathetic  inclination  for  this  kind  of  research, 
and  when  they  have  decided  to  exercise  sufficient  "  control " 
(that  is,  w^atchful  oversight)  not  to  be  the  dupe  of  any  mys- 
tification, and  agree  among  themselves  to  accept  the  regret- 
table conditions  of  darkness  necessary  to  the  activity  of 
these  unknown  radiations,  and  not  to  trouble  in  any  way 
the  apparent  exigencies  of  the  medium,  then  the  resulting 
phenomena  attain  an  extraordinary  degree  of  intensity.* 

*  I  will  add,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  try  some  of  these 
psychic  experiments,  that  the  best  conditions  for  success  are  to  have 
a  liomogoncous,  impartial,  and  sincere  group,  free  from  every  precon- 
ceived id(!a,  and  not  exceeding  five  or  six  persons  in  number.  It  is 
absurd  to  object  that,  in  order  to  obtain  the  phenomena,  one  must 
have  faith,  liut,  while  positive  belief  is  not  necessary,  it  is  yet  ad- 
visable not  to  exercise  any  hostile  influence  during  a  stance. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         173 

But  if  discord  reigns,  if  one  or  more  of  the  company 
persistently  spy  upon  the  acts  of  the  medium,  with  the  con- 
viction that  he  or  she  must  be  cheating,  the  results  are  very 
much  like  the  progress  of  a  sailing  vessel  impelled  by  sev- 
eral contrary  winds.  The  medium  simply  marks  time 
without  advancing;  and  little  but  sterile  results  are  secured. 
Psychic  forces  are  no  less  real  than  physical  or  chemical  or 
mechanical  forces.  In  spite  of  the  desire  that  we  may  have 
to  convince  prejudiced  sceptics,  it  is  advisable  to  invite  only 
one  of  them  at  a  time,  and  to  place  him  next  to  the  medium, 
in  order  that  he  may  be  at  once  astonished,  shaken,  and  con- 
vinced.    But  in  general  this  is  not  worth  the  trouble. 

In  the  month  of  September,  1895,  a  new  series  of  ex- 
periments was  made  at  I'Agnelas,  in  the  residence  of  Colonel 
de  Rochas,  president  of  the  polytechnic  school,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  Dr.  Dariex,  editor  of  the  Annales  des  sciences 
psychiques.  Count  de  Gramont  (doctor  of  science).  Dr.  J. 
Maxwell,  deputy  of  the  attorney-general  at  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals in  Limoges,  Professor  Sabatier,  of  the  faculty  of  sci- 
ences at  Montpellier,  and  Baron  de  Watteville,  a  licentiate 
in  science.     They  confirmed  all  the  preceding  details.* 

A  similar  series  was  held  in  September,  1896,  at  Tre- 
mezzo,  in  the  rooms  of  the  Blech  family,  then  in  summer 
residence  at  Lake  Como ;  again  at  Auteuil,  at  the  home  of  M. 
Marcel  Mangin,  with  MM.  Sully-Prudhomme,  Dr.  Dariex, 
Emile  Desbeaux,  A.  Guerronnan,  and  Mme.  Boisseaux  also 
participating.  Let  us  stop  for  a  moment  to  glance  at  this 
last  seance. 

*  A  very  curious  experiment  made  with  a  letter- weigher  took  place  at 
I'Agnelas.  In  response  to  an  impromptu  suggestion  made  by  M.  de 
Gramout,  Eusapia  consented  to  try  whether,  by  making  vertical  passes 
with  her  hands  on  each  side  of  the  tray  of  the  letter-weigher  (going 
as  high  as  fifty  grams),  she  could  not  lower  it.  She  succeeded  in 
doing  so  several  times  in  succession,  in  the  presence  of  five  observers 
placed  about  her,  who  testified  that  she  did  not  have  in  her  fingers 
either  thread  or  hair  to  press  upon  the  tray. 


174  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

I  will  first  mention  the  photograph  of  the  table  sus- 
pended m  the  air,  a  levitation  T^-hich  did  not  leave  any 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  experimenters,  any  more  than  it 
does  in  that  of  the  observer  who  examines  with  atten- 
tion this  photograph  (PI.  IX).  The  table  descended  slowly 
and  the  succession  of  images  was  registered  by  the  photo- 
graph (same  plate,  Cut  B).  The  following  is  an  extract 
from  the  report  by  M.  de  Rochas  upon  this  seance  and  the 
succeeding  one ; 

September  ^1.— The  table  rises  off  its  four  feet.  M 
Guerronnan  has  time  to  take  a  photograph  of  it,  but  he 
fears  that  it  may  not  be  good  We  big  Lisapia  'to  begS 
K^ ^"  ff  Jl  f"'"?*'  ^'^^  S°°^  g'""'^^-  The  table  is  again 
iho  frl  ^  °"'  !''*•  .f-  ^^^"Sin  notifies  M.  Guerron^nan 
^ho,  from  his  post,  could  not  see,  and  the  table  remains  in 
the  air  until  he  has  had  time  to  take  a  picture  of  it  (from 
hree  to  four  seconds  at  the  most).     The  dazzling  magn" 

ul}^  ''r''*'?'  ^""^  '"  *''*'  '^°™^''  °f  tlie  room,  suddenly 

blows  out  and  covers  my  head.     Then  I  feel  in  succession 

hree  pressures  of  a  hand  upon  my  head,  the  pressures  grow" 

hfse  ofir  S'ullv  P  "f7-     '  ''''  ^"^^^^  ^'"'^'^  P--  - 
tnose  ot  M.   bully-Prudhomme,  my  neighbor  on  the  rio'ht 

might  do.     I  hold  his  left  hand  a^  a  ptrt  of  The^'rhaif  o^f 

It  is  a  hand,  it  is  fingers,  which  have  iust  pressed  uBon 
nie  so;  but  whose?  I  have  continually  had  EusapTa's  7Z 
hand  upon  my  eft  hand,  which  she  seized  and  tightly  hdd 
at    the    moment    of    the    production    of    the    phenomenon 

it^,rs  IToSt;  l^rf '--  --  -  ^  - 
terjc^h-u^nj- h  ^^ri:^:^%^,  x 


Plate  IX 


Phokx.raph  of  Tai'.i.k  Sr>pi:M)EP. 


The  Table  Fallen  Back. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         175 

the  silence,  mj  attention  is  caught  by  the  appearance  of  a 
hand,  the  small  hand  of  a  woman.  I  can  see  it,  owing  to 
the  feeble  light  coming  from  the  window. 

It  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  hand:  it  is  a  hand  of  flesh  (I 
do  not  add  "  and  of  bone,"  for  I  have  the  impression  that 
it  has  no  bones).  This  hand  opens  and  closes  three  times, 
sufiicientl J  long  to  permit  me  to  say : 

^^  AVhose  hand  is  this  ?  —  yours,  Monsieur  Mangin  ?  " 

"  No.'^ 

"  Then  it  is  a  materialization  ?  " 

"  Undoubtedly :  if  you  hold  the  medium's  right  hand,  I 
hold  the  other." 

I  had  the  right  liand  of  Eusapia  on  my  left  hand,  and 
her  fingers  were  interlaced  with  mine. 

'Now  the  hand  which  I  saw  was  a  rigid  hand,  stretched 
out  and  presented  in  profile.  It  remained  for  a  moment 
motionless  in  the  air,  at  about  from  twenty-four  to  twenty- 
eight  inches  above  the  table  and  thirty-six  inches  from  Eu- 
sapia. As  its  immobility  (I  suppose)  was  the  cause  of  my 
not  seeing  it,  it  therefore  opened  and  closed:  it  was  these 
movements  which  attracted  my  attention. 

My  favorable  position  in  respect  to  the  window,  unfor- 
tunately permitted  me  alone  to  see  this  mysterious  hand ;  but 
M.  Mangin  saw,  at  two  separate  times,  not  a  hand,  but  the 
shadow  of  a  hand  outlined  in  profile  upon  the  opposite 
window. 

Eusapia  turns  her  head  in  the  direction  of  the  curtain, 
behind  which  there  is  a  leather-covered  easy-chair,  and,  dis- 
placing the  curtain,  this  chair  comes  and  leans  against  me. 

She  takes  my  left  hand,  lifts  it  above  the  table  the  whole 
length  of  her  right  arm,  and  makes  the  feint  of  rapping  in 
the  air :  the  echo  of  three  blows  is  heard  on  the  table. 

A  little  bell  is  placed  before  her.  She  stretches  out  her 
two  hands  to  the  right  and  the  left  of  the  bell  at  a  distance 
of  from  three  to  four  inches ;  then  she  draws  back  her  hands 
toward  her  body,  and,  lo  and  behold !  the  bell  comes  gliding 
along  over  the  table  until  it  bumps  against  something  and 
falls  over.  Eusapia  repeats  the  experiment  several  times. 
You  would  think  that  her  hands  were  invisibly  prolonged; 
and  that  seems  to  me  to  justify  the  term  "  ectenic  force," 


176  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

which  Professor  Thury,  of  Geneva,  gave  in  the  year  1855  to 
this  unknown  energy. 

I  was  just  asking  if  she  did  not  perchance  have  some  in- 
visible thread  between  her  fingers,  when  suddenly,  an  irre- 
sistible itching  made  her  put  her  left  hand  to  her  nose ;  her 
right  had  remained  upon  the  table  near  the  bell;  the  two 
hands  at  this  moment  were  about  two  feet  apart.  I  ob- 
served carefully.  Eusapia  rested  her  left  hand  upon  the 
table,  some  inches  from  the  bell,  and  this  was  again  set  in 
motion.  Considering  the  gesture  made  by  her,  it  would 
have  been  necessary,  in  order  to  perform  this  feat,  to  have  a 
wonderfully  elastic  thread,  absolutely  invisible;  for  our 
eyes  were,  so  to  speak,  upon  the  bell,  and  the  light  was 
abundant.  My  eyes  were  only  a  foot  distant  from  the  bell, 
at  the  utmost. 

This  was  a  certain  and  undeniable  case,  and  Sully-Prud- 
homme  returned  to  his  home  with  me  as  thoroughly  con- 
vinced as  I  am. 

The  poet  of  Solitudes  and  of  Justice,  wrote  on  his  part,  as 
follows : 

After  a  rather  long  wait,  an  architect's  stool  came  march- 
ing up  all  alone  toward  me.  It  grazed  my  left  side,  rose  to 
the  height  of  the  table,  and  succeeded  in  placing  itself  upon 
it.     As  I  lifted  my  hand,  I  felt  it  at  once  seized. 

"  Why  do  you  take  my  hand  ? ''  I  asked  of  my  neighbor. 

"  It  was  not  I,"  said  he. 

While  these  phenomena  were  taking  place,  Eusapia  seemed 
to  be  suffering.  It  seemed  as  if  out  of  her  own  physio- 
logical fund  or  stock  she  were  furnishing  all  the  force  re- 
quired to  put  the  objects  in  motion. 

After  the  seance,  while  she  was  still  very  much  prostrated, 
we  saw  an  easy-chair  which  was  behind  the  curtain  come 
rolling  up  behind  her,  as  if  to  say,  ^'  Hold  on  there !  you've 
forgotten  me !  " 

My  conviction  is  that  I  witnessed  phenomena  which 
I  cannot  relate  to  any  ordinary  physical  law.  !My  impres- 
sion is  that  fraud,  in  any  case,  is  more  than  improbable, — • 
at  least  so  far  as  concerns  the  displacement  at  a  distance  of 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         177 

heavy  articles  of  furniture  arranged  by  my  companions  and 
myself.  That  is  all  that  I  can  say  about  it.  For  my  part, 
I  call  ^^  natural  "  that  which  is  scientifically  proved.  So  that 
the  word  ''  mysterious  "  means  that  w^hich  still  astonishes 
us  because  it  cannot  be  explained.  I  believe  that  the  sci- 
entific spirit  consists  in  verifying  facts,  in  not  denying  a 
'priori  any  fact  which  is  not  in  contradiction  with  known 
laws,  and  in  accepting  none  which  has  not  been  determined 
by  safe  and  verifiable  conditions. 

Seance  of  September  26, —  A  dark  bust  moves  forward 
upon  the  table,  coming  from  where  Eusapia  sits;  then  an- 
other, and  still  another.  "  They  look  like  Chinese  ghosts," 
says  M.  Mangin,  with  this  difference,  that  I,  who  am 
better  placed,  owing  to  the  light  from  the  window,  am 
able  to  perceive  the  dimensions  of  these  singular  images, 
and  above  all  their  thickness.  All  these  black  busts  are 
busts  of  women,  of  life  size;  but,  although  vague,  they  do 
not  look  like  Eusapia.  The  last  of  them,  of  fine  shape,  is 
that  of  a  w^oman  who  seems  young  and  pretty.  These  half- 
lengths,  which  seem  to  emanate  from  the  medium,  glide 
along  between  us ;  and,  when  they  have  gone  as  far  as  the 
middle  of  the  table  or  two-thirds  of  its  length,  they  sink  down 
altogether  (all  of  a  piece,  as  it  were),  and  vanish.  This 
rigidity  makes  me  think  of  the  reproductions,  or  f  ac-similes, 
of  a  bust  escaped  from  a  sculptor's  atelier,  and  I  murmur, 
"  One  would  think  he  was  looking  at  busts  moulded  in  papier- 
mache."  Eusapia  heard  me.  "  Xo,  not  papier-mache,"  she 
says  indignantly.  She  does  not  give  any  other  explana- 
tion, but  says  (this  time  in  Italian),  "  In  order  to  prove  to 
you  that  it  is  not  the  body  of  the  medium,  I  am  going  to 
show  you  a  man  with  a  beard.  Attention !  "  I  do  not  see 
anything,  but  Dr.  Dariex  feels  his  face  rubbed  against  for 
quite  a  while  by  a  beard. 

j^Tew  experiments  made  at  Genoa  in  1901,  at  which  Eurico 
Morselli,  professor  of  psychology  at  the  University  of  Gen- 
oa, w^as  present,  were  reported  by  my  learned  friend  the 
astronomer  Porro,  successively  director  of  the  observatories 
of  Genoa  and  Turin,  to-day  director  of  the  national  observa- 


178  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES  j 

tory   of  the   Argentine   Republic  at   La  Plata.     Here   are 
some  extracts  from  this  report:* 

Nearly  ten  years  have  passed  since  Eusapia  Paladino 
made  her  first  appearance  in  the  memorable  seances  at  Milan 
during  the  course  of  her  mediumistic  tours  through  Europe. 
The  object  of  shrewd  investigations  on  the  part  of  experi- 
enced and  learned  observers;  the  butt  of  jokes,  accusations, 
sarcasms;  exalted  by  certain  fanatics  as  a  personification  of 
supernatural  powers  and  scoffed  at  by  others  as  a  mounte- 
bank,—  the  humble  haberdasher  of  Xaples  has  made  so  much 
stir  in  the  world  that  she  is  herself  bored  and  displeased 
by  it. 

I  had  good  proof  of  this  when  I  took  leave  of  her,  after  I 
had  listened  with  much  curiosity  to  the  anecdotes  which  she 
related  to  me  of  her  seances  and  of  the  well-known  men  with 
whom  she  has  been  associated, —  Ch.  Richet,  Schiaparelli, 
Lombroso,  Elammarion,  Sardou,  Aksakof,  et  al.  She  then 
very  emphatically  asked  me  not  to  speak  in  the  journals  of 
her  presence  at  Genoa  and  of  the  experiments  in  which  she 
should  figure  there.  Happily,  she  has  good  reasons  herself 
for  not  reading  the  journals. f 

Why  was  an  astronomer  chosen  to  give  an  account  of  the 
experiments  at  Genoa  ?  Because  astronomers  are  occupied 
with  researches  into  the  unkno^vn.:j: 

If  a  man  absorbed  in  his  own  private  studies  and  attached 
to  an  austere  and  laborious  manner  of  life,  such  as  my  ven- 
erated master  M.  Schiaparelli,  has  not  hesitated  to  defy  the 
irreverent  jests  of  the  comic  journals,  it  behooves  us  to  con- 
clude that  the  bond  between  the  science  of  the  heavens  and 
that  of  the  human  soul  is  more  intimate  than  appears.  The 
following  is  the  most  probable  explanation.  We  have  to  do 
in  these  studies  with  phenomena  which  are  manifested  under 
wholly  special   and   still  undetermined   conditions,   in   con- 

*  Published  by  C.  de  Vesme  in  his  Revue  des  £tudes  psycJiiques, 
1901. 

f  Eusapia,  as  has  been  said,  is  unable  either  to  read  or  write. 

i  ArafTo,  in  184G,  with  the  "  electric  girl  ";  Flammarion,  in  1861.  with 
Allan  Kardec,  then  afterwards  with  different  mediums;  Zollner,  in 
1882,  with  Slade;  Schiaparelli,  in  1892  with  Eusapia;  Porro,  in  1901, 
with  the  same  medium   {Revue  des  iltudes  psychiques) . 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         179 

formity  with  laws  almost  unknown  and,  in  any  case,  of 
siich  a  character  that  the  will  of  the  experimenter  has  but 
little  influence  upon  the  unshackled,  self-regulating,  and 
often  adverse  volitions  which  betray  themselves  at  every  mo- 
ment in  the  study  of  these  psychical  marvels.  Nobody  is 
better  prepared  to  study  these  things  than  an  astronomer, 
possessing,  as  he  does,  a  scientific  education  precisely  adapt- 
ing him  to  the  investigation  of  such  conditions.  In  fact, 
bj  the  systematic  observation  of  the  movements  of  the  heav- 
enly bodies,  the  astronomer  contracts  the  habit  of  being  a 
vigilant  and  patient  spectator  of  phenomena,  without  at- 
tempting either  to  arrest  or  to  accelerate  their  irresistible 
development.  In  other  words,  the  study  of  the  stars  be- 
longs to  the  science  of  observation  rather  than  to  that  of  ex- 
jjeriment. 

-  Professor  Porro  then  sets  forth  the  actual  state  of  the 
question  relating  to  mediumistic  phenomena. 

The  explanation  that  everything  is  fraud,  conscious  or 
unconscious  [says  he],  is  to-day  almost  entirely  abandoned, 
as  much  so  as  that  which  supposes  that  all  is  hallucination. 
In  fact,  neither  one  nor  the  other  of  these  hypotheses  is  suf- 
ficient to  throw  light  upon  the  observed  facts.  The  hypo- 
thesis of  unconscious  automatic  action  on  the  part  of  the 
medium  has  not  obtained  any  better  fate;  for  the  most 
rigorous  controls  have  only  proved  that  the  medium  finds  it 
impossible  to  excite  a  direct  dynamic  effect.  Physio-psy- 
chology has  therefore  been  obliged,  in  these  latter  years,  to 
have  recourse  to  a  supreme  hypothesis,  by  accepting  the 
theories  of  M.  de  Eochas,  against  which  they  had  heretofore 
directed  the  fire  of  their  heaviest  guns.  It  has  become  re- 
signed to  the  admission  that  a  medium  whose  limbs  are  held 
motionless  by  a  rigorous  control  may,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, project  outside  of  herself,  to  a  distance  of  several 
yards,  a  force  sufficient  to  produce  certain  phenomena  of 
movement  in  inanimate  bodies. 

The  boldest  partisans  of  this  hypothesis  go  so  far  as  to 
accept  the  temporary  creation  of  pseudo-human  limbs, — 
arms,  legs,  heads, —  in  the  formation  of  which  the  energies 


180  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

of  other  persons  present  probably  co-operate  with  those  of  the 
medium.  The  theory  is  that  as  soon  as  the  energizing  power 
of  the  medium  is  withdrawn  these  phantom  dynamic  limbs 
at  once  dissolve  and  disappear. 

For  all  that,  we  do  not  yet  go  so  far  as  to  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  free  and  independent  beings  who  would  be  able  to 
exercise  their  powers  only  through  the  human  organism; 
and  still  less  do  we  admit  the  existence  of  spirits  who  once 
animated  the  forms  of  human  beings.     .     .     . 

M.  Porro  openly  declares  that,  for  his  part,  he  is  neither 
a  materialist  nor  a  Spiritualist:  He  says  that  he  is  not 
ready  to  accept,  a  priori,  either  the  negations  of  psycho- 
physiology  or  the  faith  of  Spiritualists. 

He  adds  that  the  nine  persons  who  were  present  with  him 
at  the  seances  represented  the  greatest  variety  of  opinions 
on  the  subject,  from  the  most  firmly  persuaded  Spiritual- 
ists to  the  most  incorrigible  sceptics.  Moreover,  his  task 
was  not  that  of  writing  an  official  report,  approved  by  all 
the  experimenters,  but  solely  that  of  faithfully  relating  his 
own  impressions. 

The  following  are  the  most  important  of  these,  selected 
from  his  reports  on  the  different  seances :  ^ 

I  saw,  and  plainly  saw,  the  rough  deal  table  (a  table  a 
yard  long  and  nearly  two  feet  wide  and  resting  on  four  feet) 
rise  up  several  times  from  the  floor  and,  without  any  con- 
tact with  visible  objects,  remain  suspended  in  the  air,  sev- 
eral inches  above  the  floor,  during  the  space  of  two,  three, 
and  even  four  seconds. 

This  experiment  was  renewed  in  full  light  without  the 
hands  of  the  medium  and  of  the  five  persons  who  formed  the 
chain  about  the  table  touching  the  latter  in  any  way.  Eu- 
sapia's  hands  were  looked  after  by  her  neighbors,  who  con- 
trolled also  her  legs  and  her  feet  in  sucli  a  way  that  no  part 
of  her  body  was  able  to  exercise  the  least  pressure  for  the 
lifting  or  maintaining  in  the  air  of  the  rather  heavy  article 
of  furniture  used  in  the  experiments. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         181 

It  was  under  sucli  absolutely  trustworthy  conditions  as 
these  that  I  was  able  to  see  inflated  a  very  thich  piece  of  black 
cloth  and  the  red  curtains  which  were  behind  the  medium, 
and  which  served  to  close  the  embrasure  of  the  window. 
The  casement  was  carefully  closed,  there  was  no  current  of 
air  in  the  room,  and  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  persons 
were  hidden  in  the  embrasure  of  the  window.  I  believe, 
t  then,  that  I  can  affirm  with  the  utmost  confidence  that  a 
force,  analogous  to  that  which  had  produced  the  levitation 
of  the  table,  was  manifested  in  the  curtains,  inflated  them, 
shook  them,  and  pushed  them  out  in  such  a  way  that  they 
touched  now  one  and  now  another  of  the  company. 

During  the  sitting  an  event  took  place  which  deserves  to  be 
mentioned  as  a  proof,  or  at  least  as  an  indication,  of  the 
intelligent  character  of  the  force  in  question. 

Being  face  to  face  with  Mme.  Paladino,  at  a  point  in  the 
table  the  most  removed  from  her,  I  complained  that  I  had 
not  been  touched  as  had  the  four  other  persons  who  formed 
the  company.  No  sooner  had  I  said  this  than  I  saw  the 
heavy  curtain  sweep  out  and  come  and  hit  me  in  the  face 
with  its  lower  edge,  at  the  same  time  that  I  felt  a  light  blow 
upon  the  knuckles  of  my  fingers,  as  if  from  a  very  fragile 
and  light  piece  of  wood. 

Next  a  formidable  blow,  like  the  stroke  of  the  fist  of  an 
athlete,  is  struck  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  The  person 
seated  at  the  right  of  the  medium  feels  that  he  is  grasped  in 
the  side;  the  chair  in  which  he  was  seated  is  taken  away 
and  placed  upon  the  table,  from  which  it  then  returns  to  its 
place  without  having  been  touched  by  anybody.  The  ex- 
perimenter in  question,  who  has  remained  standing,  is  able 
to  take  his  seat  in  the  chair  again.  The  control  of  this 
phenomenon  left  nothing  to  desire. 

The  blows  are  now  redoubled,  and  are  so  terrific  that  it 
seems  as  if  they  would  split  the  table.  We  begin  to  per- 
ceive hands  lifting  and  inflating  the  curtains  and  advancing 
so  far  as  to  touch  first  one,  then  the  other,  of  the  company, 
caressing  them,  pressing  their  hands,  daintily  pulling  their 
ears  or  clapping  hands  merrily  in  the  air  above  their  heads. 

It  seems  to  me  very  singular  and  perhaps  intentional, — • 
this  contrast  between  the  touches    (sometimes  nervous  and 


182  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOKCES  I 

energetic,  and  again  delicate  and  gentle,  but  always  friendly)  * 
and  the  deafening,   violent,   brutal  blows   struck  upon  the 
table. 

A  single  one  of  these  fist-blows,  planted  in  the  back,  would 
suffice  to  break  the  vertebral  column. 

The  hands  that  perform  these  feats  are  the  strong  and 
brawny  hands  of  a  man,  the  daintier  hands  are  those  of  a 
woman,  the  very  small  hands  those  of  children. 

The  darkness  is  rendered  a  little  less  dense,  and  at  once 
the  chair  of  No.  5  (Professor  Morselli),  which  had  already 
made  a  jump  to  one  side,  is  slipped  from  under  him,  w^hile 
a  hand  is  placed  on  his  back  and  on  his  shoulder.  The  chair 
gets  up  on  the  table,  comes  down  again  to  the  floor,  and, 
after  different  horizontal  and  vertical  oscillations,  soars  up 
and  rests  upon  the  head  of  the  professor,  who  has  remained 
standing.  It  remains  there  for  some  minutes  in  a  state  of 
very  unstable  equilibrium. 

The  loud  blows  and  the  delicate  touches  of  hands,  large 
and  small,  succeed  each  other  uninterruptedly  in  such  a 
way  that,  without  our  being  able  mathematically  to  prove 
the  simultaneousness  of  different  phenomena,  it  is  yet  al- 
most certain  in  several  cases. 

While  our  opportunities  for  obtaining  so  valuable  a  sub- 
ject of  demonstration  increase,  the  simultaneity  which 
we  ask  for  is  at  last  granted;  for  the  table  raps,  the  bell 
sounds,  and  the  tambourine  is  carried  tinkling  over  our 
heads  all  about  the  room,  rests  for  a  moment  on  the  table, 
and  then  resumes  its  flight  in  the  air. 

A  bouquet  of  flowers,  placed  in  a  carafe  on  the  larger 
table,  comes  over  onto  ours,  preceded  by  an  agreeable  per- 
fume. Stems  of  flowers  are  placed  in  the  mouth  of  No.  5 ; 
and  No.  8  is  hit  by  a  rubber  ball,  which  rebounds  upon  the 
table.  The  carafe  comes  over  to  join  the  flowers  on  our 
table;  it  is  then  immediately  lifted  and  put  to  the  mouth  of 
the  medium,  and  she  is  made  to  drink  from  it  twice;  be- 
tween the  two  times  it  sinks  do\vn  to  the  table  and  stands 
there  for  a  moment  right  side  up.  We  distinctly  hear  the 
swallowing  of  the  water,  after  which  Mme.  Paladino  asks 
some  one  to  wipe  her  mouth  with  a  handkerchief.  Finally, 
the  carafe  returns  to  the  large  table. 


OTHER  SEA:N'CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         183 

But  a  transfer  of  a  totally  different  character  is  effected 
in  the  following  way.  I  had  complained  several  times  that 
my  position  in  the  chain  at  a  distance  from  the  medium  had 
hindered  me  from  being  touched  during  the  seance.  Sud- 
denly, I  hear  a  noise  on  the  wall  of  the  room,  followed  by 
the  tinkling  of  the  strings  of  the  guitar,  which  vibrate  as  if 
some  one  were  tiding  to  take  down  the  instniment  from  the 
wall  on  which  it  hung.  At  last  the  effort  succeeds,  and  the 
guitar  comes  toward  me  in  an  oblique  direction.  I  dis- 
tinctly saw  it  come  between  me  and  ^o.  8,  with  a  rapidity 
which  rendered  the  impact  of  it  rather  unpleasant.  Xot 
I  being  able  at  first  to  account  to  myself  for  this  dim  black  ob- 
ject which  was  driving  at  me,  I  slipped  to  one  side  (No.  8 
was  seated  at  my  left).  Then  the  guitar,  changing  its  route, 
struck  forcibly  with  its  handle  three  blows  upon  my  fore- 
head (which  remained  a  little  bruised  for  two  or  three 
days),  after  which  it  came  to  a  rest  with  delicate  precision 
upon  the  table.  It  did  not  remain  there  very  long  before  it 
began  to  circle  about  the  hall,  with  a  rotation  to  the  right, 
quite  high  above  our  heads,  and  at  great  speed. 

It  is  proper  to  remark  that,  in  this  rotation  of  the  guitar, 
the  vibration  of  its  own  strings  was  added  to  the  sound  of 
the  tambourine  struck  sometimes  on  one  side,  sometimes  on 
the  other,  in  the  air;  and  the  guitar,  bulky  as  it  was,  never 
once  struck  the  central  supporting  electric-light  rod,  nor  the 
three  gas  lamps  fixed  on  the  walls  of  the  chamber.  When 
we  take  into  consideration  the  contracted  dimensions  of  the 
room,  we  see  that  it  was  very  difficult  to  avoid  these  ob- 
stacles, since  the  space  remaining  free  was  very  limited. 

The  guitar  took  its  flight  twice  around  the  room,  coming 
to  a  stand-still  (between  the  two  times)  in  the  middle  of 
the  table,  w^here  finally  it  came  to  a  rest.  In  a  final  supreme 
effort,  Eusapia  turns  toward  the  left,  where  upon  a  table  is 
a  typewriting  machine  weighing  fifteen  pounds.  During 
the  effort  the  medium  falls  exhausted  and  nervous  upon  the 
floor ;  but  the  machine  rises  from  its  place  and  betakes  itself 
to  the  middle  of  our  table,  near  the  guitar. 

Jn  f uU  light,  Eusapia  calls  M.  Morselli,  and,  controlled  by 
the  two  persons  next  her,  brings  him  with  her  toward  the 
table,  upon  which  is  placed  a  mass   of  modelling-piaster. 


184  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

She  takes  his  open  hand  and  pushes  it  three  times  toward 
the  plaster,  as  if  to  sink  the  hand  into  it  and  leave  upon  it 
an  impression.  M.  Morselli's  hand  remains  at  a  distance 
of  more  than  four  inches  from  the  mass :  nevertheless,  at  the 
end  of  the  seance,  the  experimenters  ascertain  that  the  lump 
of  plaster  contains  the  impression  of  three  fingers, —  deeper 
prints  than  it  is  possible  to  obtain  directly  by  means  of 
voluntary  pressure. 

The  medium  lifts  her  two  hands,  all  the  time  clasped  in 
mine  and  in  those  of  No.  5  (Morselli),  and  uttering  groans, 
cries,  exhortations,  she  rises  with  her  chair,  so  far  as  to 
place  its  two  feet  and  the  ends  of  its  two  front  cross-bars 
upon  the  top  of  the  table.  It  was  a  moment  of  great  anx- 
iety. The  levitation  was  accomplished  rapidly,  but  without 
any  jarring  or  jolting  or  jerking.  In  other  words,  if,  in  an 
effort  of  extreme  distrust  you  insisted  on  supposing  that  she 
employed  some  artifice  to  obtain  the  result,  you  would  rather 
have  to  think  of  a  pulling  up,  by  means  of  a  cord  and  pulley, 
rather  than  of  a  jDushing  from  beneath. 

But  neither  of  these  hypotheses  can  stand  the  most  ele- 
mentary examination  of  the  facts.      .     .     . 

There  is  more  to  follow.  Eusapia  was  lifted  up  still 
farther  with  her  chair,  from  the  upper  part  of  the  table, 
in  such  a  way  that  ]S[o.  11  on  one  side  and  I  on  the  other 
were  able  to  pass  our  hands  under  her  feet  and  under  those 
of  the  chair. 

Moreover,  the  fact  that  the  posterior  feet  of  the  chair  were 
entirely  off  of  the  table,  without  any  visible  support  makes 
this  levitation  still  more  irreconcilable  with  the  su])position 
that  Eusapia  could  have  made  her  body  and  the  chair  take 
an  upward  leap. 

M.  Porro  judges  that  this  phenomenon  is  one  of  those 
which  are  less  easily  explained  if  we  decline  to  have  re- 
course to  the  Spiritualistic  hypothesis.  It  is  a  little  like  the 
man  who  fell  into  the  water  and  thought  he  could  pull  him- 
self out  by  his  own  hair. 

Eusapia  [adds  M.  Porro]  descended  without  any  jolting, 
little  by  little,  A^o.  5  and  I  never  letting  go  her  hands.     The 


OTHER  SEAXCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         185 


:  chair,  having  risen  up  a  little  higher,  turned  over  and  placed 
itself  on  my  head,  whence  it  spontaneously  returned  to  the 
floor. 

This  thing  was  tried  again.  Eusapia  and  her  chair  were 
transported  again  to  the  top  of  the  tahle,  only,  this  time, 
the  result  of  the  fatigue  imdergone  hy  her  was  such  that 
I  the  poor  woman  fell  in  a  faint  upon  the  tahle.  We  lifted 
her  down  with  all  due  care. 

The  experimenters  desired  to  know  whether  these  phe- 
nomena, the  success  of  which  depends  in  so  great  measure 
upon  the  conditions  of  light,  could  not  have  better  success 
in  the  white  and  quiet  light  of  the  moon. 

They  were  obliged  to  admit  that  there  was  no  appreciable 
difference  between  the  lunar  light  and  other  kinds.  But 
the  table  around  which  they  had  formed  the  chain  quitted 
the  veranda  where  the  sitting  was  being  held,  and,  in  spite 
of  the  strongly  expressed  wishes  of  the  sitters  and  of  the 
medium  herself,  betook  itself  into  the  neighboring  room, 
where  the  sitting  then  continued. 

This  room  was  a  little  salon  crowded  with  elegant  furni- 
ture and  fragile  objects,  such  as  crystal  chandeliers,  porce- 
lain vases,  bric-a-brac,  etc.  The  experimenters  feared  very 
much  that  these  things  would  suffer  damage  in  the  bustle  of 
the  seance;  but  not  the  slightest  object  suffered  any  damage. 

Mme.  Paladino,  who  was  now  herself  again,  took  the 
hand  of  is'o.  11  and  placed  it  gently  upon  the  back  of  a  chair, 
at  the  same  time  placing  her  own  hand  upon  his.  Then,  as 
she  lifted  her  hand  and  that  of  Xo.  11,  the  chair  followed 
the  same  ascending  movement  several  times  in  succession. 

This  thing  was  repeated  in  full  light. 

No.  5,  as  well  as  other  gentlemen,  perceived,  in  a  manner 
that  admitted  of  no  doubt,  a  vague,  indistinct  figure  thrown 
upon  the  air  in  the  doorway  of  an  antechamber  which  was 
feebly  illuminated.  The  figure  consisted  of  changing  and 
fugitive  silhouettes,  sometimes  with  the  outline  of  a  human 
head  and  body,  sometimes  like  hands  reaching  out  from  the 
curtains.  Their  objective  character  was  demonstrated  by 
the  agreement  of  impressions,  which  were  controlled  in  their 
turn  by  means  of  continual  inquiries.  There  was  no  possi- 
bility of  their  being  shadows   voluntarily  or   involuntarily 


186  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

projected  by  the  bodies  of  the  experimenters,  since  we  were 
mutually  watching  each  other. 

The  tenth  seance  (the  last)  was  one  of  the  best-attended, 
and  was  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all. 

Scarcely  has  the  electric  light  been  extinguished  when 
we  remark  an  automatic  movement  of  the  chair  upon  which 
a  lump  of  plaster  has  been  placed,  while  the  hands  and  feet 
of  Eusapia  are  watchfully  controlled  by  me  and  by  ISTo.  3. 
However,  as  we  wish  to  forestall  the  objection  of  critics 
that  the  phenomena  take  place  in  the  dark,  the  table  typto- 
logically  (that  is,  by  taps)  asks  for  light,  and  the  experi- 
menters light  the  electric  lamp. 

Presently,  all  the  company  see  the  chair  on  which  the 
lump  of  plaster  lies  (not  at  all  a  light  chair)  moving  between 
myself  and  the  medium^  without  our  being  able  to  under- 
stand the  determining  cause  of  the  movement. 

Mme.  Paladino  puts  her  outspread  hand  upon  the  back 
of  the  chair  and  her  left  above  it.  When  our  hands  rise  up, 
the  chair  rises  also  without  contact,  reaching  a  height  of 
about  six  inches.  This  performance  is  several  times  re- 
peated, with  the  addition  of  the  intervention  of  the  hand  of 
Xo.  5,  under  conditions  of  light  and  of  control  which  leave 
nothing  to  be  desired. 

The  room  is  again  almost  completely  darkened.  .  .  . 
A  current  of  cold  air  upon  the  table  precedes  the  arrival  of  a 
little  branch  with  two  green  leaves.  We  know  that  there  are 
no  plants  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  company:  it  appears 
then  that  we  have  here  a  case  of  hringing-in  from  the  out- 
side. 

No.  3  is  greatly  exhausted  with  the  heat.  And,  lo!  a 
hand,  which  takes  his  handkerchief  from  his  neck  and  with 
it  dries  the  perspiration  on  his  face.  He  tries  to  seize  the 
handkerchief  with  his  teeth,  but  it  is  snatched  from  him. 
A  big  hand  lifts  his  left  hand  and  makes  him  rap  several 
strokes  with  it  on  the  table. 

Gleams  of  light  begin  to  appear,  at  first  on  the  right  hand 
of  No.  5,  then  in  dilTercnt  parts  of  the  halL  They  are  per- 
ceived by  ever^^body. 


OTHER  SEA:N'CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         18Y 

The  curtain  is  inflated,  as  if  it  were  pushed  against  by  a 
strong  wind,  and  touches  Iso.  11,  who  is  seated  in  a  small 
easy-chair  a  yard  and  a  half  from  the  medium.  The  same 
person  is  touched  by  a  hand,  while  another  hand  pulls  a  fan 
from  the  inside  pocket  of  his  jacket,  carries  it  to  Xo.  5  and 
then  to  Xo.  11.  The  fan  is  soon  returned  to  its  owner,  and 
is  moved  to  and  fro  above  our  heads,  to  the  great  satisfac- 
tion of  all  of  us.  A  tobacco  pouch  is  taken  from  the  pocket 
of  Xo.  3 :  the  Invisible  empties  it  on  the  table,  and  then 
gives  it  to  Xo.  10.  Various  stems  of  plants  drop  upon  the 
table. 

Transfers  of  the  fan  from  one  hand  to  another  begin 
again.  Then  Xo.  11  believes  that  he  ought  to  announce 
that  the  fan  had  been  offered  to  him  by  a  young  girl  who  had 
expressed  the  wish  that  it  be  transferred  to  'No.  11,  then 
given  back  to  Ko.  5.    Kobody  knew  about  this  except  No.  11. 

Xo.  5,  who  at  present  occupies  the  small  arm-chair  where 
formerly  Xo.  11  was  seated,  a  yard  and  a  half  from  the 
medium,  feels  the  edge  of  the  curtain  touching  him  and  then 
perceives  the  presence  of  the  body  of  a  woman  whose  hair 
rests  on  his  head. 

The  seance  is  adjourned  about  one  o'clock. 

At  the  moment  of  parting,  Eusapia  sees  a  bell  on  the 
piano;  she  extends  her  hand;  the  bell  glides  along  on  the 
piano,  turns  over,  and  falls  on  the  floor.  The  experiment 
is  renewed,  in  full  light  as  before,  the  hand  of  the  medium 
remaining;  several  inches  from  the  bell.     .     .     . 


't5 


It  is  evident  that  these  exploits  are  still  more  extraordi- 
nary than  the  preceding  ones,  in  certain  respects.     The  fol- 
li     lowing  are  the  conclusions  of  the  report  of  Professor  Porro. 

The  phenomena  are  real.  They  cannot  be  explained 
either  by  fraud  or  by  hallucination.  Do  they  find  their  ex- 
planation in  certain  strata  of  the  unconscious  (the  sub- 
liminal), in  some  latent  faculty  of  the  human  soul,  or  indeed 
do  they  reveal  the  existence  of  other  entities  living  under 
conditions  wholly  different  from  ours  and  normally  inac- 
cessible to  our  senses  ?  In  other  words,  will  the  animistic 
hypothesis  suffice  to  solve  the  problem  and  to  do  away  with 


188  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

the  Spiritualistic  hypothesis  ?  Or,  rather,  do  not  the  phe- 
nomena serve  here,  as  in  the  psychology  of  dreams,  to  com- 
plicate the  problem  by  hiding  the  Spiritualistic  solution 
within  them?  It  is  to  this  formidable  query  that  I  am 
going  to  attempt  a  reply. 

When,  eleven  years  ago,  Alexander  Aksakof  stated  the 
dilemma  between  Animism  and  Spiritism,  and  in  a  masterly 
work  clearly  proved  that  purely  animistic  manifestations 
were  inseparable  from  those  which  direct  our  thoughts  to 
a  belief  in  the  existence  of  independent,  intelligent,  and 
active  entities,  no  one  could  have  expected  that  the  first 
term  of  the  dilemma  would  be  disputed  and  criticised  in  a 
thousand  ways,  under  a  thousand  varying  forms,  by  per- 
sons who  would  be  dismayed  at  the  second  term. 

In  fact,  what  are  all  the  hypotheses  which  for  ten  years 
now  have  been  invented  in  order  to  reduce  mediumistic  phe- 
nomena to  the  simple  manifestation  of  qualities  latent  in  the 
human  psyche  (or  soul),  if  not  different  forms  of  the  ani- 
mistic hypothesis,  so  jeered  at  when  it  appeared  in  the  work 
of  Aksakof? 

From  the  idea  of  the  unconscious  muscular  action  of  the 
spectators  (put  forth  half  a  century  ago  by  Faraday)  to 
the  projection  of  protoplasmic  activity  or  to  the  temporary 
emanation  from  the  body  of  the  medium  imagined  by  Lodge ; 
from  the  psychiatric  doctrine  of  Lombroso  to  the  psycho- 
physiology  of  Ochorowicz ;  from  the  externalization  admitted 
by  Rochas  to  the  eso-psychism  of  Morselli;  from  the  auto- 
matism of  Pierre  Janet  to  the  duplication  of  personality  of 
Alfred  Binet, —  there  was  a  perfect  flood  of  explanations, 
having  for  their  end  the  elimination  of  an  exterior  per- 
sonality. 

The  process  was  logical  and  in  agreement  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  scientific  philosophy,  which  instructs  us  to  exhaust 
the  possibilities  of  what  is  already  known  before  having  re- 
course to  the  unknown. 

But  this  principle,  unassailable  in  theory,  may  lead  to 
erroneous  results  when  it  is  wilfully  stretched  too  far  into 
a  given  field  of  research.  Vallati  has  cited,  in  this  connec- 
tion, a  curious  marginal  note  of  Galileo,  recently  published 
in  the  third  volume  of  the  national  edition  of  his  works: 


OTHER  SEAN^CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         189 

"  If  we  heat  amber,  the  diamond,   and  certain  other  very 

::  dense  substances  by  chafing  them,  they  attract  small  light 

I  bodies,  because,  in  cooling  off,  they  attract  the  air,  which 

I  draws   these    corpuscles    along   with   it."      Thus   the   desire 

to  bring  still  unexplained  material  facts  under  the  known 

physical  laws  of  his   day  led  an  observer  and  thinker   so 

prudent  and  practical  as  Galileo  to  formulate  a  false  propo- 

s  sition.     If  anybody  had  said  to  him  that  in  the  attraction 

I  exercised  by  amber  there  was  the  germ  of  a  new  branch  of 

science   and   the   rudimentary   manifestation   of   an   energy 

(electricity)   then  unknown,  he  would  have  replied  that  it 

■  was  useless  to  '^  have  recourse  to  the  aid  of  the  unknown.'' 

But  the  analogy  between  the  error  committed  by  the  great 

physicist   and  that  which  modern  scholars   commit  can  be 

pushed  still  farther. 

Galileo  was  familiar  with  a  form  of  energy  which  the 
natural  philosophy  of  our  times  investigates  simultaneously 
with  electric  energy,  with  which  it  has  close  relations  con- 
firmed by  all  recent  discoveries.  If  it  had  been  perceived 
that  the  explanation  which  he  gave  of  the  phenomenon  of 
amber  had  no  foundation,  he  would  have  been  able  to  give 
his  attention  to  the  analogies  which  the  attraction  exercised 
by  amber  rubbed  over  light  bodies  presents  with  the  attrac- 
tion exercised  by  the  loadstone  upon  iron  filings.  When 
he  had  got  so  far,  he  would  very  probably  have  discarded 
his  first  hypothesis  and  would  have  admitted  that  the  attrac- 
tive power  of  amber  is  a  magnetic  phenomenon.  He  would 
have  been  deceived,  however,  for  it  is  an  electric  phenome- 
non. 

In  the  same  way  might  not  those  persons  deceive  them- 
selves who,  in  order  to  escape  at  any  cost  the  necessity  of 
the  hypothesis  of  spiritistic  entities,  should  insist  with  a 
too  persistent  predilection  upon  the  animistic  hypothesis, 
even  when  this  would  be  found  insufficient  to  explain  all 
mediumistic  manifestations  ?  Might  it  not  be  true  that, 
like  electric  and  magnetic  phenomena,  which  are  in  close 
interchangeable  connection,  and  frequently  appear  to  us  in- 
separable, animistic  and  spiritistic  phenomena  have  a  com- 
mon bond  ?  And  let  us  well  note  that  a  single  fact,  inex- 
plicable by  the  animistic  hypothesis  and  explicable  by  the 


190  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

spiritistic  hypothesis,  would  STiffice  to  confer  upon  the  latter 
that  degree  of  scientific  value  which  up  to  the  present  time 
has  been  so  energetically  denied  to  it,  just  as  the  discovery 
of  a  secondary  phenomenon,  that  of  the  polarization  of  light, 
sufiiced  to  make  Fresnel  reject  the  Xewtonian  theory  of 
emission  and  admit  that  of  undulation. 

Did  we  obtain,  during  the  course  of  our  ten  seances  with 
Eusapia,  the  one  fact  which  is  enough  to  make  the  spirit- 
istic hypothesis  necessarily  take  precedence  of  all  others  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  reply  categorically  to  this  question  be- 
cause it  is  not  possible,  and  never  will  be,  to  have  a  scientific 
proof  of  the  identity  of  the  beings  who  manifest  themselves. 

The  fact  that  I  hear,  that  I  see,  that  I  touch  a  phantom ; 
that  I  recognize  in  it  the  form  and  the  attitude  of  persons 
whom  I  have  known  and  whom  the  medium  has  neither 
known  nor  of  whom  she  has  even  heard  the  names;  that  I 
have  the  most  lively  and  affecting  testimony  to  the  presence  of 
this  ephemeral  apparition, —  all  that  will  not  be  sufficient  to 
constitute  the  scientific  fact  which  none  can  refute,  and 
which  shall  be  worthy  to  remain  in  the  annals  of  science 
along  with  the  experiments  of  Torricelli,  Archimedes  and 
Galvani.  It  will  always  be  possible  to  imagine  an  unknown 
mechanism  by  the  aid  of  which  elemental  substance  and 
poAver  may  be  drawn  from  the  medium  and  the  sitters  and 
combined  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  the  indicated  effects. 
It  will  always  be  possible  to  find  in  the  special  aptitudes  of 
the  medium,  in  the  thought  of  the  sitters,  and  even  in  their 
attitude  of  expectant  attention,  the  cause  of  the  human 
origin  of  the  phenomena.  It  will  always  be  possible  to  un- 
earth from  the  arsenal  of  the  attacks  made  upon  these  studies 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  some  generic  or  specific  argument, 
either  ad  rem  or  ad  hominem,  while  ignoring  or  feigning  to 
ignore  the  refutation  of  the  argument  which  has  already  been 
made. 

The  question,  then,  reduces  itself  at  once  to  an  individual 
study  of  cases  either  directly  observed  or  obtained  from  some 
sure  hand,  in  order  on  the  one  hand,  to  create  a  personal  con- 
viction capable  of  resisting  the  scathing  ridicule  of  the  scep- 
tics, and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  prepare  public  opinion  to 


i 


OTHER  SEA:N'CES  WITH  EUSAPIA         191 

admit  the  truth  of  cases  observed  by  persons  worthy  of  cre- 
dence. 

With  regard  to  the  first  of  these,  the  illustrious  experi- 
menter Sidgwick,  has  already  said  that  no  fact  or  case  exists 
capable  of  convincing  everybody,  but  that  each  one,  by 
patiently  and  calmly  observing,  may  find  such  fact  or  case  as 
will  suffice  to  establish  his  own  conviction.  I  may  say  that 
for  myself  such  a  case  exists.  I  need  only  refer  to  the 
phenomena  in  which  I  have  personally  participated  in  the 
seances  with  Eusapia. 

With  regard  to  the  second  point  I  could  say  much,  but 
that  would  lead  me  beyond  the  subject  matter  and  the  limits 
of  this  study. 

On  the  one  hand,  we  have  the  universal  belief  in  the  ob- 
jective existence  of  a  world  unknown  to  us  in  our  normal 
state;  that  faith  (the  basis  of  all  religions)  in  a  future  life 
where  the  injustices  of  this  one  will  be  atoned  for  and  where 
we  shall  be  confronted  with  the  good  or  evil  deeds  that  we 
have  done  on  earth;  that  uninterrupted  tradition  of  sys- 
tematic or  spontaneous  observances  and  rituals,  thanks  to 
which  man  is  constantly  kept  in  relation  more  or  less  with 
that  unknown  world. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  sceptical  and  disheartening 
negation  of  systems  of  pessimistic  philosophy  and  of  atheism, 
a  negation  which  takes  its  rise  in  the  absence  of  positive 
proofs  of  the  survival  of  the  soul;  the  ever  more  and  more 
marked  tendency  of  science  toward  a  monistic  interpretation 
of  the  enigma  of  human  life;  and  the  belief  that  all  the 
known  phenomena  of  life  appear  only  in  connection  with 
special  organs. 

In  order  to  decide  in  so  abstruse  a  matter  as  this,  medium- 
istic  experiments  do  not  suffice ;  everyone  may  draw  from 
these  as  much  of  credence  or  of  incredulity  as  he  may  need 
in  order  to  resolve  his  doubts  in  one  way  or  another ;  but  he 
will  never  divest  himself  of  the  substratum  of  temperamental 
tendencies  which  the  more  or  less  scientific  education  of  his 
mind  or  the  more  or  less  mystical  inclinations  of  his  nature 
shall  have  developed  in  him. 

One  word  more  and  I  have  done. 

While  admitting  it  as  the  most  probable  hypothesis  that 


192  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

the  intelligent  beings  to  whom  we  owe  these  psychical  phe-| 
nomena  are  pre-existing,  independent  entities,  and  that  they; 
only  derive  from  us  the  conditions  necessary  for  their  mani-i 
festation  in  a  physical  plane  accessible  to  our  senses,  ought 
we  to  admit  also  that  they  are  really  the  spirits  of  the  dead?  : 

To  this  question  I  will  reply  that  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am 
as  yet  capable  of  giving  a  decisive  answer. 

Still  I  should  be  inclined  to  admit  it,  if  I  did  not  see  the 
possibility  that  these  phenomena  might  form  part  of  a  scheme 
of  things  still  more  vast.  In  fact,  nothing  hinders  us  from 
believing  in  the  existence  of  forms  of  life  wholly  different 
from  those  which  we  know,  and  of  which  the  life  of  human 
beings  before  birth  and  after  death  forms  only  a  special  case, 
just  as  the  organic  life  of  man  is  a  special  case  of  animal 
life  in  general. 

But  I  am  leaving  the  solid  ground  of  facts  to  explore  that 
of  the  most  hazardous  hypotheses.  I  have  already  spoken  at 
too  great  length,  and  will  therefore  close  the  discussion  of 
this  particular  topic. 

[ 

I  have  considered  the  above  subjects  in  several  of  my 

own  works.* 

We  are  surrounded  by  unknoT\Ti  forces  and  there  is  no 
proof  that  we  are  not  also  surrounded  by  invisible  beings. 
Our  senses  teach  us  nothing  about  reality.  But  logically 
the  discussion  of  theories  ought  to  be  reserved  as  a  comple- 
ment to  the  ensemble  or  summary  of  our  observations  and 
experiments ;  that  is  to  say,  for  the  last  chapter.  It  behooves 
us  before  everything  else  positively  to  ascertain  that  medium- 
istic  phenomena  exist. 

It  seems  to  me,  that  this  has  been  done  for  every  impar- 
tial reader.  This  will  be  overwhelmingly  confirmed  by  the 
following  chapters.  But  there  is  one  point  on  which  we 
ought  to  dwell  a  moment.  I  mean  the  question  of  fraud, 
conscious  or  unconscious,   which   it  would   be  natural,   but 

*  Notably  in  Uranie,  in  Stella,  in  Lumen,  in  Ulnconnu.  See  also 
above,  p.  30  in  my  Oration  at  the  Grave  of  Allen  Kardec. 


OTHER  SEANCES  WITH  EUSAPIA         198 

unfair,  to  here  ignore  and  cover  np.  Our  judicial  review 
would  not  be  complete  did  we  not  consecrate  a  special  chap- 
ter to  these  mystifications,  which  unhappily  are  too  fre- 
quently employed  by  mediums. 


CHAPTER  V 

FRAUDS,   TRICKS,   DECEPTIOXS,   I:MP0STURES,   PEATS   OF  LEGER- 
DEMAIN,    MYSTIFICATIOXS,    IMPEDIMENTS 

Several  times  in  the  preceding  chapters  the  question  has 
come  up  of  fraud  in  the  mediums.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
experimenters  must  be  constantly  on  their  guard  against 
them.  It  is  this  which  has  discouraged  certain  eminent 
men  and  prevented  them  from  continuing  their  researches, 
for  their  time  is  too  precious  to  waste.  This  may  be  es- 
pecially noticed  in  the  letter  of  M.  Schiaparelli  above  (p. 
64)  whom  Spiritualists  keep  citing  (wrongly)  as  among  the 
number  of  their  partisans.  But  he  absolutely  refuses  to 
be  identified  with  them.  He  accepts  no  theory;  he  is  not 
even  sure  of  the  actual  existence  of  the  facts,  and  has  de- 
clined to  give  the  time  needed  for  their  authentication. 

I  shall  take  occasion  in  the  second  volume  of  The  Un- 
Jcnown  to  treat  of  Spiritualism  (properly  so  called),  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  plurality  of  worlds,  of  the  plurality  of  exist- 
ences, of  re-incaraation,  of  pre-existence,  and  of  communica- 
tions with  the  departed, —  subjects  independent  of  the  ma- 
terial phenomena  to  a  discussion  of  which  the  present  work 
is  devoted.  To  these  subjects  the  physical  manifestations 
only  contribute  in  an  indirect  manner.  As  we  have  already 
several  times  said  in  the  preceding  pages,  we  are  only  con- 
cerned here  to  prove  the  actual  existence  of  these  extraordi- 
nary phenomena.  Tlie  establishing  of  the  proof  depends 
above  all  upon  the  elimination  of  fraud. 

In  the  case  of  Eusapia  (the  medium  most  thoroughly  ex- 

194 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    195 

lamined  in  the  present  volume)   fraud,  nnliappily,  has  been 
■only  too  well  established  in  more  than  one  instance. 

I     But  a  very  important  remark  must  here  be  made.     All 

'  physiologists  know  that  hysterical  persons  have  a  tendency 
to  falsehood  and  simulation.  They  lie,  apparently  without 
reason,  and  solely  for  the  pleasure  of  lying.  There  are 
hysterics  among  the  women  and  young  girls  of  the  higher 
classes. 

Does  this  characteristic  defect  prove  that  hysteria  does 
not  exist  ?    It  proves  just  the  contrary. 

Consequently,  those  who  think  that  the  frauds  of  the 
mediums  give  the  death  blow  to  mediumship  are  deceived. 
Mediumship  exists,  as  well  as  hysteria,  as  well  as  hypnot- 
ism, as  w^ell  as  somnambulism.     Trickery  also  exists. 

I  will  not  say,  with  certain  theologians,  ^'  There  are  false 
prophets,  therefore  there  are  true  ones,"  for  that  is  a  soph- 
ism of  the  worst  kind.  The  existence  of  the  false  does  not 
hinder  the  existence  of  the  true. 

I  knew  a  kleptomaniac,  who  got  herself  arrested  more 
than  once  in  the  great  shops  of  Paris  for  stealing  various 
articles.  That  does  not  prove  that  she  never  bought  any- 
thing, and  only  obtained  by  theft  all  the  articles  she  needed. 
On  the  contrary,  the  objects  stolen  must  have  represented 

I  but  a  small  part  of  the  materials  of  her  toilet.  But  the  fact 
that  she  stole  is  incontestable.     In  the  experiments  which 

;  we  are  considering  in  these  pages,  deception  is  a  co-efficient 
which  cannot  be  neglected. 

It  is  my  duty  to  point  out  here  some  examples  of  this 
failing.  Before  doing  so,  I  ought  to  recall  the  fact  that  for 
a  period  of  forty  years  I  have  examined  all  the  mediums 
whose  achievements  have  had  the  widest  celebrity, —  includ- 
ing Daniel  D.  Home,  gifted  with  the  most  astounding  pow- 
ers, who,  gave  at  the  Tuileries,  before  the  Emperor  Na- 
poleon IIIj  his  family,  and  his  friends,  such  extraordinary 


196  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

seances,  and  who  was  later  employed  by  William  Crookesj 
in  the  accurate  scientific  researches  made  by  that  gentleman ; 
Mme.  Rodiere,  a  remarkable  typtologic  medium;  C.  Bredif, 
who  produced  strange  apparitions ;  Egiington,  with  the  en- 
chanted slates ;  Henry  Slade,  who  made  with  the  astronomer 
Zollner  those  incredible  experiments  from  which  geometry 
only  saved  itself  by  admitting  the  possibility  of  a  fourth 
dimension  of  space;  Buguet  whose  photographic  plates 
caught  and  held  the  shadows  of  the  dead,  and  who,  having 
allowed  me  to  experiment  with  him,  let  me  conduct  my  re- 
searches for  &ve  weeks  before  I  detected  his  fraudulent 
methods  and  mechanisms;  Lacroix,  to  whom  spirits  of  all 
ages  seemed  to  troop  in  crowds;  and  many  others  who  in- 
sj^ire  deep  interest  in  Spiritualists  and  scientific  investi- 
gators by  manifestations  more  or  less  strange  and  marvelous. 
I  have  quite  often  been  absolutely  deceived.  When  I 
took  the  precautions  that  were  necessary  to  put  the  medium 
beyond  the  possibility  of  trickery,  I  obtained  no  result;  if  I 
pretended  not  to  see  anything  I  would  perceive  out  of  the 
corner  of  my  eye  attempts  at  deceit.  And,  in  general,  the 
phenomena  which  took  place  happened  only  in  the  moments 
of  distraction  in  which  my  attention  was  for  an  instant 
relaxed.  While  I  was  pushing  my  investigation  a  little 
farther,  I  saw  with  my  own  eyes  Buguet's  prepared  nega- 
tives; saw  with  my  own  eyes  Slade  writing  under  the  table 
upon  a  concealed  slate,  and  so  forth.  Apropos  of  this  fa- 
mous medium  Slade,  I  may  recall  the  fact  that  after  his 
experiments  with  Zollner,  director  of  the  observatory  at 
Leipzig,  he  came  to  Paris,  and  for  the  purpose  of  experi- 
mentation, placed  himself  at  my  disposal  (and  that  of  all 
the  astronomers  at  the  Observatory  to  whom  I  should  intro- 
duce him).  He  said  he  got  direct  writings  from  the  spirits 
by  a  bit  of  pencil  placed  between  two  slates  tied  together, 
by  oscillations  of  the  magnetic  needle,  displacements  of  fur- 


i 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    197 

niture,  the  automatic  throwing  about  of  objects,  and  the 
like.  He  was  very  willing  to  give  me  one  seance  a  week, 
for  six  weeks  (on  Monday  at  11  o'clock  A.  M.,  at  21  Beau- 
jon  Street).  But  I  obtained  nothing  certain.  In  the  cases 
that  did  succeed,  there  was  a  possible  substitution  of  slates. 
Tired  of  so  much  loss  of  time,  I  agreed  with  Admiral 
Mouchez,  director  of  the  Observatory  of  Paris,  to  confide 
to  Slade  a  double  slate  prepared  by  ourselves,  with  the  pre- 
cautions which  were  necessary  in  order  that  we  should  not 
be  entrapped.  The  two  slates  were  sealed  in  such  a  way 
with  paper  of  the  Observatory  that  if  he  took  them  apart 
he  could  not  conceal  the  fraud.  He  accepted  the  conditions 
of  the  experiment.  I  carried  the  slates  to  his  apartment. 
They  remained  under  the  influence  of  the  medium,  in  this 
apartment,  not  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  not  a  half-hour  or  an 
hour,  but  ten  consecutive  days,  and  when  he  sent  them  back 
to  us  there  was  not  the  least  trace  of  writing  inside ;  and  yet 
specimens  of  this  were  always  furnished  by  him  when  he 
had  the  opportunity  of  transposing  slates  prepared  in  ad- 
vance."^ 

Without  entering  into  other  details,  let  it  suffice  me  to 
say,  that,  too  frequently  deceived  by  dishonest  and  menda- 
cious mediums,  I  brought  to  my  experiments  with  Eusapia 
a  mental  reserve  of  scepticism,  of  doubt,  and  of  suspicion. 

The  conditions  of  experimenting  are  in  general  so  crooked 
that  it  is  easy  to  be  duped.  And  scientists  and  scholars  are 
perhaps  most  easily  duped  of  all  men,  because  scientific 
observation  of  experiments  is  always  honest,  since  w^e  are 
not  obliged  to  distrust  nature, —  when  the  question  is  of  a 
star  or  of  a  molecule, —  and  since  we  have  the  habit  of  de- 
scribing facts  as  they  present  themselves  to  our  intelligence. 

*  Slade  was  sentenced  to  three  months  of  hard  labor,  in  London,  for 
swindling.  He  died  in  a  private  hospital,  in  the  State  of  Michigan,  in 
September,  1905. 


198  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES  |||f 

That  granted,  we  may  now  look  at  certain  curious  doings 
of  Eusapia. 

We  considered  a  little  farther  back  (p.  173)  Col.  de 
Eochas's  strange  experiment  with  the  letter-weigher.  This 
was  considered  by  the  experimenters  as  absolutely  conclu- 
sive. I  was  curious  to  verify  it.  Here  are  my  notes  on 
the  matter. 

I. 


t*. 


November  12,  1898. —  This  afternoon  we  took  ^  drive  in 
a  landau  (Eusapia  and  I)  in  company  with  M.  and  Mme. 
Pallotti  of  Cairo,  and,  among  other  things,  we  visited  the 
exhibition  of  chrysanthemums  at  the  Tuileries.  Eusapia  is 
enchanted.  We  return  about  6  o'clock.  My  wife  seats  her- 
self at  the  piano,  and  Eusapia  sings  some  Neapolitan  airs 
and  some  little  fragments  of  Italian  operas.  Afterwards 
we  all  three  chat  confidentially  with  each  other. 

She  is  in  a  very  happy  state  of  mind,  tells  us  how  some-    i 
times  on  stormy  days  she  experiences  electric  cracklings  and  „ 
sparkling  in  her  hair,  especially  on  an  old  wound  that  she  J 
once  received  on  the  head.     She  also  tells  us  that  when  she 
has  been  a  long  time  without  holding  a  seance  she  is  in  a 
state  of  irritation,  and  feels  the  need  of  freeing  herself  of 
the  psychic  fluid  which  saturates  her.     This  avowal  aston- 
ishes me,  for,  at  the  end  of  every  seance,  she  seems  rather  to 
be  listless  and  melancholy  and  seems  to  hold  a  sitting  rather 
unwillingly  than  otherwise.     She  adds  that  she  frequently 
has  fluidic  prolongations  of  the  ends  of  her  fingers,  and,  put- 
ting her  two  hands  on  my  knees,  the  inside  of  the  hand 
turned  upward,  at  the  same  time  spreading  out  the  fingers 
and  placing  them  opposite  each  other  face  to  face,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  several  inches,  and  alternately  bringing  the  hands  ^ 
together  and  withdrawing  them,  she  tells  us  to  observe  from  | 
time  to  time   the  radiations  which  prolong  the  fingers  by  o 
forming  a  sort  of  luminous  aureole  at  their  extremities.     My 
wife  thinks  she  perceives  some  of  them.     I  am  unable  to  see 
anything  at  all,  in  spite  of  all  my  efforts,  although  I  change 
the  light  and  shade  in  all  sorts  of  ways.     The  salon  is  lighted 
at  this  time  by  two  intense  Auer  burners.     We  go  into  the 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    199 

I  bedroom,  lighted  only  by  candles,  and  I  cannot  see  tbem  any 
better.  I  snuff  out  the  candles,  on  the  supposition  that  this 
is  perhaps  a  case  of  phosphorescence;  but  I  never  perceive 
anything.  We  return  to  the  salon.  Eusapia  spreads  a  black 
*  woollen  shawl  over  her  silk  skirt  and  shows  me  the  luminous 
effluence.  But  all  the  time  I  can  see  nothing,  unless  it  be  for 
a  moment  a  kind  of  pale  ray  at  the  end  of  the  index  finger 
:of  her  right-hand. 

The  dinner  hour  approaches.  It  is  seven  o'clock.  A  let- 
ter-weigher (PI.  X),  which  I  had  bought  to  renew  the  curi- 
ous experiment  of  M.  de  Roohas,  is  upon  the  table.  I  ask 
Eusapia  if  she  remembers  having  made  a  piece  of  mechanism 
like  this  move  downward  on  its  spring  by  placing  her  hands 
on  each  side  of  it,  at  a  distance,  and  making  something  like 
magnetic  passes.  She  doesn't  seem  to  remember  anything 
iabout  it  and  hums  a  little  stanza  from  Santa  Lucia.  I  beg 
:that  she  will  try  it.  She  does  so.  Nothing  moves.  She 
:asks  me  to  place  my  hands  on  hers.  We  make  the  same 
passes,  and,  to  my  amazement  (for  I  really  was  not  expecting 
it  at  all)  the  little  tray  sinks  down  to  the  point  where  it 
touches  the  lever  and  produces  the  sharp  sound  of  contact. 
^This  point  is  beyond  the  graduation  of  the  scale,  which  stops 
at  fifty  grams,  and  may  go  to  sixty,  and  represents  seventy 
grams  at  the  lowest.  The  tray  immediately  rises  again. 
'We  begin  a  second  time.  Nothing.  A  third  time :  the  same 
lowering  and  the  same  return  to  equilibrium.  Then  I  beg 
her  to  try  the  experiment  alone.  She  rubs  her  hands  to- 
gether and  makes  the  same  passes.  The  letter  weigher  goes 
down  to  the  same  maximum  point.  We  are  all  standing 
close  by  her,  in  the  full  light  of  the  Auer  burners.  The 
same  performance  is  repeated,  the  tray  remaining  down  for 
an  interval  of  about  five  minutes.  The  movement  does  not 
take  place  at  once;  there  are  sometimes  three  or  four  trials 
without  success,  as  if  the  force  were  exhausted  by  the  result. 
The  tray  had  already  sunk  down  four  times  before  our  eyes, 
always  as  far  as  the  maximum  point,  when  the  valet  de 
chambre,  passing  by  upon  some  matter  of  service,  I  tell 
him  to  stop  and  look.  Eusapia  begins  again  and  does  not 
succeed.  She  waits  a  moment,  rubs  her  hands,  begins  again, 
and  the  same  movement  without  contact  is  produced  for  the 


200  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

seventh  time,  before  tlie  three  witnesses,  each  as  much  as- 
tonished as  the  other.  Her  hands  are  sensibly  chilled.  I 
think  of  the  trick  of  the  hair,  pass  my  hands  between  both 
of  hers  and  find  nothing  there ;  I  did  not  see  anything.  Be- 
sides, she  does  not  seem  to  have  touched  her  head,  and  her 
hands  have  remained  before  us  since  the  commencement  of 
the  experiment,  free  and  untouched. 

On  the  supposition  that  there  may  be  here  some  electric 
force  in  operation,  I  beg  her  to  place  her  fingers  upon  an  ex- 
tremely sensitive  compass.  In  whatever  way  she  grasps  this, 
it  refuses  to  move. 

We  sit  do^\Ti  to  the  dinner-table.  I  ask  her  to  lift  a  fork 
as  she  had  done  at  Montfort.  At  the  third  trial  she  suc- 
ceeds —  and  without  the  use  of  a  hair,  at  least  any  that  was 
apparent 

II. 

November  16. —  In  order  to  entertain  Eusapia,  Adolphe 
Brisson  yesterday  evening  offered  her  a  box  at  the  Folies- 
Bergere,  where  Loie  Fuller  was  giving  her  magnificent  spec- 
tacular exhibitions.  We  went  there  with  her.  She  returned 
enchanted,  is  to-day  very  gay  and  very  animated,  speaks  of 
her  candid  and  loyal  character  and  blames  the  comedies 
of  fashionable  life.  During  dinner  she  tells  us  a  part  of  the 
story  of  her  life. 

Nine  o'clock. —  M.  and  Mme.  Levy  and  M.  G.  Mathieu 
have  just  arrived. 

We  are  conversing.  Placing  her  hands  on  a  leg  of  M. 
Mathieu  in  the  darkness  she  shows  him  the  radiations  ema- 
nating from  her  fingers,  which  are  however  scarcely  apparent 
to  us. 

It  was  after  having  showm  me  these  radiations,  the  other 
day,  that  the  experiment  of  the  letter-weigher  took  place. 
She  associates  the  two  phenomena,  and  undertakes  to  try  the 
latter  again. 

She  asks  me  to  give  her  a  little  water.  I  go  to  the  dining- 
room  in  search  of  a  carafe  and  a  glass.  During  my  absence, 
M.  Mathieu  remarks  that,  while  my  wife  is  talking  with  M. 
and  Mme.  Levy,  Eusapia  reaches  her  hand  to  her  head  and 
makes  a  little  gesture  as  if  she  were  pulling  out  a  hair. 


• 


^  s^ 


Plate  X.     Scales  Used  ix  Professor  Flammakiox's 
Experiment. 


TEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    201 

I  return  with  a  glass  and  a  carafe  and  pour  out  for  her 
as  much  as  she  wishes.  She  drinks  a  quarter  of  a  glass  of 
water.  At  my  request,  she  moves  her  hands  downward  on 
each  side  of  the  letter-weigher  in  the  same  way  as  day  before 
yesterday,  and  after  two  or  three  passes  the  tray  sinks,  not 
to  its  full  length  as  day  before  yesterday,  but  to  the  mark 
of  thirty-five  or  forty  grams. 

The  experiment  was  tried  a  second  time  and  succeeded 
in  the  same  way. 

Under  pretext  of  going  in  search  of  a  photographic  camera 
M.  Mathieu  draws  me  into  another  room  and  shows  me  a 
long,  very  fine  hair  which  fell  into  his  hand  after  the  ex- 
periment, at  the  moment  when  Eusapia  was  making  a  gesture 
as  if  she  were  going  to  shake  his  hand. 

This  hair  is  of  a  rich  chestnut  tint  (the  color  of  Eusapia's 
hair)  and  measures  fourteen  inches  in  length.  I  have  'pre- 
served it. 

This  took  place  at  quarter  past  nine.  The  sitting  begins 
at  9  :30  and  finishes  at  11 :30.  After  the  sitting,  Eusapia 
asks  me  for  another  glass  of  water,  and  shows  me  a  little  hair 
between  her  fingers. 

Just  as  she  is  going,  at  midnight,  half  laughingly,  half 
seriously,  she  pulls  a  hair  from  the  front  part  of  her  head 
and,  taking  the  hand  of  my  wife,  puts  this  hair  in  it  and 
closes  the  hand  while  looking  her  in  the  eye.  She  certainly 
noticed  that  we  had  perceived  fraud. 

III. 

November  19. —  Eusapia  is  a  sly  one.  She  is  gifted  with 
great  sharpness  of  sight  and  has  unusually  sensitive  ears. 
She  is  very  intelligent  and  is  a  person  of  rare  delicacy  of 
feeling.  She  perceives  and  divines  everything  which  con- 
cerns herself.  Never  reading,  since  she  doesn't  know  hoAV  to 
read;  never  writing,  since  she  doesn't  know  how  to  write; 
speaking  little  when  here,  since  she  rarely  finds  persons  who 
understand  and  speak  Italian,  she  remains  always  concen- 
trated in  herself  and  nothing  turns  her  from  permanent 
thought  about  her  own  personality.  It  would  undoubtedly 
be  impossible  to  discover  a  similar  state  of  mind  in  the 
case  of  other  persons ;  for  we,  as  they,  are  generally  occupied 


202  MYSTEHIOUS  PSYCHIC  TORCES 

with  a  thousand  things  which  scatter  our  attention  over  manyi 
different  objects.  i 

I  arrive,  at  11:30,  at  the  rooms  of  Dr.  Richet  in  order  toi 
escort  Eusapia  to  Mme.  Fourton's,  where  we  are  to  takei 
luncheon.  She  is  cold  and  constrained.  I  pretend  not  to 
notice  it,  and  keep  talking  with  the  doctor.  She  goes  to 
put  on  her  hat  and  we  descend  the  stairs.  At  the  foot  of  the 
staircase  she  says,  ''  What  did  M.  Richet  say  to  you?  What 
were  you  speaking  of  ?  "  A  moment  after,  returning  in 
thought  to  our  last  seance,  she  says,  ^'  Were  you  completely 
satisfied  ? ''  In  the  carriage  I  take  her  hand  and  converse 
with  her  in  a  friendly  way.  ^'  Everything  is  going  very 
well,''  I  say  to  her ;  ^'  but  some  experiments  will  still  be 
necessary  in  order  to  leave  no  room  for  doubt.''  Then  I 
speak  to  her  of  other  things. 

She  becomes  gradually  sociable  and  her  clouded  brow 
seems  to  clear  up.  However,  she  evidently  feels  that  in 
spite  of  my  rather  superficial  amiability,  I  am  not  absolutely 
the  same  to  her.  During  the  luncheon  she  holds  out  her 
champagne  glass  to  me  and  drinks  my  health.  Mme.  Eourton 
is  convinced  of  Eusapia's  genuineness,  beyond  all  manner  of 
doubt.  During  conversation,  a  little  later,  Eusapia  says  to* 
her,  "  I  am  sure  of  you,  I  am  sure  of  !Mme.  Blech,  of 
M.  Richet,  of  M.  de  Rochas;  but  I  am  not  sure  of  M. 
Elammarion." 

^'  You  are  sure  of  Mme.  Fourton,"  I  replied.  "  Yery 
well.  But  think  for  a  moment  of  the  several  thousand  per- 
sons who  are  waiting  for  my  opinion  in  order  to  fix  their 
own.  M.  Chiaia  told  you  this  at  Naples,  M.  de  Rochas  re- 
peated it  to  you  in  Paris.  You  see  I  have  a  very  great  re- 
sponsibility and  you  yourself  certainly  see  that  I  cannot  af- 
firm that  of  which  I  am  not  absolutely  certain.  You  ought 
yourself  loyally  to  aid  me  in  obtaining  that  certainty." 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  I  understand  the  difference  very 
well.  However,  if  it  had  not  been  for  you  I  should  not  have 
made  the  journey  from  ^N'aples,  for  the  climate  of  Paris 
does  not  agree  with  me  very  well.  Oh,  certainly;  we  must 
have  you  convinced  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt." 

She  has  now  returned  to  her  habitual  intimacy.  We  took 
her  to  the  Museum  at  the  Louvre,  which  she  had  not  visited, 


FRAUDS,  MYSTiriCATIOIsrS,  IMPEDIMENTS    203 

then  to  a  meeting  with  M.  Jules  Bois  who  was  making  sug- 
gestion-experiments with  Mme.  Lina.  Eusapia  is  very 
much  interested  in  these.  We  speak  of  the  jests  and  mimick- 
ings  of  the  comedians. 

•In  the  evening,  at  dinner,  the  brilliant  conversation  of 
■Victorien  Sardou,  the  repartees  of  Col.  de  Rochas,  the  ques- 
tions (a  little  insidious)  of  Brisson,  all  interest  her;  but  it 
is  evident  that  she  never  forgets  herself.  Thus,  before  din- 
ner, she  tells  me  that  she  has  the  headache,  especially  in  the 
neighborhood  of  her  wound,  passes  her  hand  through  her 
hair  ('^  which  hurts  her"),  and  asks  me  for  a  brush.  "In 
order,"  she  says,  that  "  in  case  of  a  seance  experiment,  a 
stray  hair  shall  not  be  found  in  the  wrong  place."  And 
she  carefully  brushes  her  shoulders.  I  do  not  always  appear 
to  understand  her.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  she  under- 
stands that  we  have  —  found  a  hair ! 

IV. 

(mOEE  recent  note, MAECH^  1906.) 

On  Thursday,  March  29,  Eusapia,  being  in  Paris,  came 
to  see  me.  I  had  not  seen  her  since  her  seances  at  my  house 
in  November^  1898.  We  kept  her  to  dinner,  and  after  dinner 
I  asked  her  to  take  part  with  me  in  some  experiments. 

I  first  asked  her  to  place  her  hands  upon  the  piano,  think- 
ing that  perhaps  some  of  its  strings  would  vibrate.  But 
nothing  happened. 

I  then  induced  her  to  place  her  hands  on  the  covered  key- 
board. She  asked  that  it  be  slightly  opened  by  means  of  a 
little  block.  I  placed  my  hands  upon  it,  by  the  side  of  hers. 
My  object  was,  by  keeping  up  contact,  to  keep  her  from  slip- 
ping a  finger  over  the  keys.  She  kept  trying  to  substitute 
one  hand  for  the  two  that  I  held,  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave 
one  of  them  free,  and  a  few  notes  sounded.  Result  of  the 
experiment,  nil.  We  left  the  piano  and  went  over  to  a 
white-wood  table.     We  got  some  insignificant  balancings. 

"  Is  there  a  spirit  there  ?  " 

"  Yes  "  (indicated  by  three  raps.) 

"  Does  it  wish  to  communicate  ?  " 

"  Yes." 


204  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

I  pronounce  slowly  and  in  their  proper  order  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet. 

Keplj,  ''Tua  matre,''  ("thy  mother.'') 

This  certainly  means  "  Tua  madre."  (note  once  more  that 
Ensapia  does  not  know  how  to  read  or  write.) 

Eusapia  noticed  that  I  was  in  mourning  and  I  had  told 
her  that  my  mother  had  died  on  the  first  of  last  July.  T 
then  asked  to  be  told  her  name.      (Eusapia  does  not  know  it.) 

No  reply. 

The  movements  of  the  table  which  were  next  asked  for 
gave  no  results  of  any  particular  value. 

However,  a  stuffed  arm-chair  near  by  was  several  times 
shifted  out  of  its  place  without  contact,  advancing  of  itself 
toward  Eusapia.  Since  the  chandelier  was  lighted,  and  there 
was  no  possibility  of  any  string  being  used,  and  since  I  had 
my  foot  upon  that  one  of  Eusapia's  which  was  nearest  the 
arm-chair,  the  movement  must  evidently  have  been  due  to  a 
force  emanating  from  the  medium. 

I  pushed  the  easy  chair  back  three  times.  Three  times  it 
returned.  The  same  phenomenon  was  reproduced  several 
days  afterward. 

It  is  observable  that  if  she  had  been  able  to  detach  her 
foot  from  mine,  she  would  have  been  able  to  reach  the  chair 
(by  some  little  twisting,)  and  the  production  of  the  phe- 
nomenon must  have  been  within  the  range  of  her  circle  of 
activity  (and  of  possible  trickery).  But,  as  the  case  was, 
deception  was  impossible. 

Since  we  could  not  obtain  any  levitation  of  the  table,  and 
since  the  psychical  force  of  the  four  of  us  (Eusapia,  myself, 
my  wife,  and  Eusapia's  companion,  who  had  joined  us  for 
a  moment,  but,  who  at  other  times,  always  remained  apart) 
was  clearly  insufficient,  I  went  and  secured  a  lighter  round 
table.  Tlion,  with  her  hands  placed  upon  it  in  contact  with 
mine,  three  of  its  feet  were  raised  to  a  height  of  ten  or  twelve 
inches  from  the  floor.  We  repeated  the  experiment  three 
times,  with  gratifying  success.  Eusapia  squeezed  my  hands 
violently  in  one  of  hers  (the  right  hand)  which  rested  on 
the  table. 

The  whole  seance  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  a  web  of  inter- 
mingled truth  and  falsehood. 


FEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    205 

These  notes  remind  us  once  more  that  there  is  almost 
always  a  mingling  of  veritable  fact  and  of  fraudulent  per- 
formance. 

It  is  easy  to  admit  that  the  medium,  wishing  to  produce 
an  effect,  and  having  at  her  disposal  for  this  purpose  two 
means, —  the  one  easy  and  demanding  only  skill  and  cun- 
ning, the  other  distressing,  costly,  and  painful, —  is  tempted 
to  choose,  consciously  or  even  unconsciously j  that  which  costs 
her  the  least. 

The  following  is  her  method  of  procedure  for  obtaining 
the  substitution  of  hands.  The  figures  shown  in  Plate  XI 
represent  four  successive  positions  of  the  medium's  hands 
and  those  of  the  sitters.  They  show  how,  owing  to  the 
darkness  and  to  a  skilful  combined  series  of  movements,  she 
can  induce  the  sitter  on  the  right  to  believe  that  he  still 
feels  the  right  hand  of  the  medium  on  his  o^vn,  while  he 
really  feels  her  left  hand,  which  is  firmly  held  by  the  sitter 
on  the  left.  This  right  hand  of  hers,  being  then  free,  is 
able  to  produce  such  effects  as  are  within  its  reach. 

The  substitution  may  be  obtained  in  different  ways.  But, 
whichever  method  is  used,  it  is  evident  that  the  freed  hand 
can  only  operate  in  a  space  within  its  reach. 

Who  of  us  is  always  master  of  his  impressions  and  of 
his  faculties  ?  writes  Dr.  Dariex  in  this  connection.* 
Who  of  us  can  at  will  put  himself  into  such  and  such  a 
physical  condition  and  such  and  such  a  moral  state  ?  Is  the 
composer  of  music  master  of  his  inspiration  ?  Does  a  poet 
always  wTite  verses  of  equal  w^orth  ?  Is  a  man  of  genius 
always  a  man  of  genius  ?  Now,  what  is  there  less  normal, 
more  impressionable,  and  more  capricious  than  a  sensitive, 
a  medium,  especially  when  she  is  away  from  home,  thrown 
out  of  the  routine  of  her  daily  life,  and  staying  w4th  those 
with  whom  she  is  unacquainted  or  knows  very  slightly,  w^ho 
are  to  be  her  judges  and  who  expect  from  her  the  rare  and 

*  Annales  des  sciences  psychiques,  1896,  p.  66. 


I, 

206  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES  j 

abnormal  phenomenon  the  production  of  Avhich  is  not  under 
the  constant  and  complete  control  of  her  will  ? 

A  sensitive  placed  in  such  a  situation,  will  have  a  fatal 
propensity  to  feign  the  phenomenon  which  does  not  spon- 
taneously materialize  or  to  heighten  by  deceit  the  intensity 
of  a  partially  successful  experiment. 

This  feigning  is  of  course  a  very  vexatious  and  regrettable 
thing.  It  throws  suspicion  upon  the  experiments,  renders 
them  much  more  difficult  and  less  within  the  reach  of  the 
investigator.  But  this  is  only  an  impediment,  and  ought  not 
to  fetch  us  up  short  and  lead  us  to  give  a  premature  de- 
cision. All  of  us  who  have  experimented  with  and  handled 
these  sensitives  know  that  at  every  step  we  run  foul  of  fraud, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  and  that  all  mediums  —  or  almost 
all  —  are  used  to  the  thing.  We  know  that  we  must,  unfor- 
tunately, take  our  share,  for  the  moment,  of  this  regrettable 
weakness,  and  be  perspicacious  enough  to  hinder,  or  at  least 
to  unearth  the  trickery,  and  to  disentangle  the  true  from 
the  false. 

More  than  one  of  those  who  have  engaged  perseveringly 
in  psychic  experiments,  can  say  that  he  has  been  sometimes 
enervated  and  irritated  while  waiting  for  a  phenomenon 
which  does  not  take  place,  and  that  he  has  felt  something 
like  a  desire  to  put  an  end  to  this  waiting  by  himself  giving 
the  extra  twist  or  decisive  touch.* 

Such  experimenters  can  understand  that  if,  in  place  of 
being  conscientious  workers,  always  masters  of  themselves, 
incapable  of  deceiving,  and  engaged  solely  in  the  search  for 
scientific  truth,  they  were,  on  the  contrary,  somewhat  dreamy 
and  impulsive  persons  who  were  susceptible  to  suggestion  and 
whose  amour  propre  was  active,  and  in  whose  minds  scientific 
probity  did  not  hold  the  first  and  pre-eminent  place,  they 
would  undoubtedly  engage,  more  or  less  involuntarily,  in  the 
artificial  production  of  phenomena  which  refused  to  take 
place  in  smooth  and  natural  order. 

As  to  Eusapia,  if  she  does  sometimes  counterfeit,  she  does 
it  only  by  eluding  the  watchful  inspection  of  the  experimen- 
ters and  by  escaping  for  a  moment  from  their  control;  but 

*  We  have  already  noticed  (see  p.  149)  the  practical  joke  of  Pro- 
fessor Bianchi  in  a  meetinc:  of  the  most  serious  investisrators. 


I 


Plate  XI 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS   207 

she  does  it  without  any  other  artifice.  Her  experiments  are 
not  planned,  and,  contrary  to  the  habit  of  prestidigitators, 
she  does  not  carry  any  apparatus  upon  her  person.  It  is 
easy  to  assure  one^s  self  of  this,  for  she  is  very  willing  to 
completely  undress  before  a  lady  charged  with  keeping  watch 
of  her. 

Furthermore,  she  exhibits  her  powers  ad  libitum  with  the 
same  persons,  and  repeats  indefinitely  the  same  experiments 
before  them.     Prestidigitators  do  not  act  in  this  way. 

It  is  infinitely  to  be  regretted  that  we  cannot  trust  the 
loyalty  of  the  mediums.  They  almost  all  cheat.  This  is 
extremely  discouraging  to  the  investigator,  and  the  constant 
perplexity  of  mind  we  feel  during  our  investigations  renders 
them  altogether  painful.  \Yhen  we  have  passed  several  days 
in  these  inexplicable  researches  and  then  return  to  scientific 
work, —  to  an  observation  or  to  an  astromical  calculation, 
for  example,  or  to  the  examination  of  a  problem  in  pure 
science, —  w^e  experience  a  sensation  of  freshness,  calmness, 
relief,  and  serenity  which  give  us,  by  contrast,  the  most 
lively  satisfaction.  We  feel  that  we  are  walking  on  solid 
ground  and  that  we  have  not  got  to  distrust  anybody.  In- 
deed, all  the  intrinsic  interest  of  psychic  problems  is  needed, 
sometimes,  to  give  us  the  courage  to  renounce  the  pleasure 
of  scientific  study  in  order  to  give  ourselves  to  investigations 
so  laborious  and  perplexed. 

I  believe  that  there  is  only  one  way  to  assure  ourselves  of 
the  reality  of  the  phenomena,  and  that  is  to  put  the  medium 
under  conditions  in  which  trickery  is  impossible.  To  catch 
her  in  the  very  act  of  deceit  would  be  extremely  easy.  It 
would  only  be  necessary  to  give  her  free  rein.  And  then 
one  can  very  easily  aid  her  to  cheat  and  to  get  caught.  All 
that  is  necessary  is  that  we  be  convinced  of  her  dishonesty. 
Eusapia,  especially,  very  easily  takes  suggestion.  While 
going  one  day  in  an  open  carriage  to  dine  at  his  residence, 


208  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EORCES  | 

Colonel  de  Eochas  said  to  her,  in  my  presence,  '^  You  can't 
lift  your  right  hand  any  more.  Try  it !  "  She  did  try,  but 
in  vain.  "  ]S^on  posso,  non  posso!"  ('^  I  can't  do  it,  I 
can't  do  it!  ").     The  mere  suggestion  had  been  sufficient. 

In  the  phenomena  concerned  with  the  movements  of  ob- 
jects without  contact  she  always  makes  a  gesture  corre- 
sponding to  the  phenomenon.  A  force  darts  forth  from  her 
and  performs  the  deed.  Thus,  for  example,  she  strikes  with 
her  fist  three  or  four  strokes  in  the  air  at  a  distance  of  ten 
or  twelve  inches  from  the  table :  the  same  strokes  are  heard 
in  the  table.  And  it  is  positively  in  the  wood  of  the  table. 
It  is  not  beneath  it,  nor  upon  the  floor.  Her  legs  are  held 
and  she  does  not  move  them.  She  strikes  five  strokes  with 
the  middle  finger  upon  my  hand  in  the  air:  the  five  strokes 
are  rapped  upon  the  table  (iSTovember  19).  3 

]^ay  more,  this  force  can  be  transmitted  by  another.  I 
hold  her  legs  with  my  left  hand  spread  out  upon  them;  M. 
Sardou  holds  her  left  hand;  she  takes  my  right  wrist  in 
her  right  hand  and  says  to  me,  "  Strike  in  the  direction  of 
M.  Sardou."  I  do  so  three  or  four  times.  M.  Sardou  feels 
upon  his  body  my  blows  tallying  my  gesture,  with  the  dif- 
ference of  about  a  second  between  my  motion  and  his  sen- 
sation. The  experiment  is  tried  again  with  the  same  suc- 
cess. 

That  same  evening,  not  only  did  we  not  let  go  for  a  single 
instant  of  Eusapia's  hands,  separated  from  each  other  by 
the  width  of  her  body  and  placed  near  our  own,  but  we  did 
not  allow  them  to  be  moved  from  the  side  of  the  objects  to 
be  displaced.  It  took  considerable  time  to  obtain  results. 
But,  all  the  same,  they  were  wholly  successful. 

She  has  a  tendency  to  go  and  take  hold  of  the  objects ;  she 
must  be  stopped  in  a  good  time.  However,  she  herself  does 
take  hold  of  them,  in  fact,  through  the  prolongation  of  her 
muscular  force,  and  she  says  so :  "I  am  grasping  it,  I  have 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    209 

hold  of  it.''     It  is  our  part  to  carefully  retain  her  normal 
hands  in  ours. 

We  sometimes  have  good  reason  to  suspect  that  Eusapia 
seizes  the  objects  to  be  moved  (such  as  musical  instruments) 
with  one  of  her  hands  which  she  has  freed.  But  there  is 
plenty  of  proof  that  she  does  not  always  do  so.  Here  is  a 
case,  for  example.  The  scene  is  Naples,  1902,  at  a  seance 
with  Professor  von  Schrenck-Notzing : 


Fig.  2. 


The  seance  took  place  in  a  little  room,  by  a  feeble  light, 
but  one  sufficient  for  us  to  distinguish  the  personages  and 
their  movements.  Behind  the  medium,  upon  a  chair,  there 
was  a  harmonica,  at  the  distance  of  about  a  yard. 

Now,  at  a  certain  moment,  Eusapia  took  between  her  hands 
a  hand  of  the  professor  and  commenced  to  separate  his 
fingers  one  from  another  and  bring  them  together  again,  as 
may  be  seen  in  the  accompanying  cut.  The  harmonica  was 
at  that  moment  playing  at  a  distance  in  tones  that  perfectly 
synchronized  the  movements  made  by  Eusapia.  The  instru- 
ment was  isolated  in  the  room.     We  made  sure  that  there 


210  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

were  no  threads  connecting  it  with  the  medium.  Still  less 
could  anybody  fear  accomplices,  for  the  light  would  easily 
have  betrayed  their  intervention.  This  performance  was 
analogous  to  that  which  occurred  in  my  presence  on  the  27th 
of  July,  1897.     (see  above  p.  72.) 

The  following  is  a  typical  example  of  "  sympathetic " 
movements,  taken  from  a  report  by  Dr.  Dariex.  The  mat- 
ter in  hand  was  to  make  a  key  spring  out  from  a  lock. 

The  light  was  strong  enough  for  us  to  perfectly  distinguish 
Eusapia's  every  movement.  All  at  once,  the  key  of  the  chest 
is  heard  to  rattle  in  its  lock;  but,  caught  in  some  unknown 
way,  it  refuses  to  budge.  Eusapia  grasps  with  her  right 
hand  the  left  of  M.  Sabatier,  and,  at  the  same  time,  curls 
the  fingers  of  her  other  hand  around  his  index  finger.  Then 
she  begins  to  make  alternate  movements  of  rotation  back 
and  forth  around  his  finger.  We  at  once  hear  synchronous 
rattlings  of  the  key  which  turns  in  its  lock  just  as  the  fingers 
of  the  medium  are  doing.* 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  chest,  instead  of  being  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  medium,  had  been  within  her  reach;  let  us 
still  further  suppose  that  the  light,  instead  of  being  abund- 
ant, had  been  feeble  and  uncertain:  the  sitters  would  not 
have  failed  to  confound  this  kind  of  synchronous  automatism 
with  conscious  and  impudent  fraud  on  the  part  of  Eusapia. 
And  they  would  have  been  deceived. 

Without  excusing  fraud,  which  is  abominable,  shameful, 
and  despicable  in  each  and  every  case,  it  can  undoubtedly 
be  explained  in  a  very  human  way  by  admitting  the  reality 
of  the  phenomena.  In  the  first  place  the  real  phenomena 
exhaust  the  medium,  and  only  take  place  at  the  cost  of  an 

*  See  Annates,  1896.  The  report  is  very  rich  in  records.  The  door 
of  the  wardrobe  opened  and  closed  of  itself,  several  times  in  succession, 
in  synchronism  with  the  movements  of  the  medium's  hands,  which  were 
at  about  a  yard's  distance.  A  toy  piano  weighing  about  two  pounds 
was  moved  about,  and  played  several  airs  all  alone,  etc. 


FEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIOi^S,  IMPEDIMENTS    211 

enormous  expenditure  of  vital  force.  She  is  frequently  ill 
on  the  following  day,  sometimes  even  on  the  second  day 
following,  and  is  incapable  of  taking  any  nourishment  with- 
out immediately  vomiting.  One  can  readily  conceive,  then, 
that  when  she  is  able  to  perform  certain  wonders  without 
any  expenditure  of  force  and  merely  by  a  more  or  less  skil- 
ful piece  of  deception,  she  prefers  the  second  procedure  to 
the  first.  It  does  not  exhaust  her  at  all,  and  may  even 
amuse  her. 

Let  me  remark,  in  the  next  place,  that,  during  these  ex- 

j  periments,  she  is  generally  in  a  half-awake  condition  which 
is  somewhat  similar  to  the  hypnotic  or  somnambulistic  sleep. 
Her  fixed  idea  is  to  produce  phenomena;  and  she  produces 

I  them,  no  matter  how. 

It  is,  then,  urgent,  indispensable,  to  be  constantly  on  the 
alert  and  to  control  all  her  actions  and  gestures  with  the 
greatest  care. 

I  could  cite  hundreds  of  analogous  examples  observed  by 
myself  in  the  years  gone  by.  Here  is  one  taken  from  my 
notes. 

On  the  second  of  October,  1889,  a  spiritualistic  seance 
had  brought  together  certain  investigators  in  the  hospitable 
mansion  of  the  Countess  of  Mouzay,  at  Rambouillet.  We 
were  told  that  we  had  the  rare  good  fortune  to  have  with  us 
a  veritable  and  excellent  medium, —  Mme.  X.,  the  wife  of  a 
very  distinguished  Paris  physician,  herself  well  educated 
and  inspiring  by  her  character  the  greatest  confidence. 

We  arranged  ourselves,  four  in  all,  around  a  little  table 
of  light  wood.  Scarcely  a  minute  has  passed  when  the 
;i  little  table  seems  to  be  taken  with  trembling,  and  almost 
immediately  it  rises  and  then  falls  back.  This  vertical  move- 
ment is  repeated  several  times  in  the  full  light  of  the  lamps 
of  the  salon. 

The  next  day  the  same  levitation  occurred  in  broad  day- 
light^ at  noon,  while  we  were  w^aiting  for  a  guest  who  was 


212  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

late  to  luncheon.     This  time  the  round  table  used  was  mucb 

heavier. 

"  Is  there  a  spirit  there  ?  "  some  one  asks. 

"  Yes." 

*'  Is  he  willing  to  give  his  name  ? '' 

"  Yes.'' 

Someone  takes  an  alphabet,  counts  the  letters,  and  receives, 
by  taps  made  by  one  of  the  feet  of  the  table,  the  name 
Leopoldine  Hugo. 

"  Have  you  something  to  say  to  us  ? " 

"  Charles,  my  husband,  would  like  to  be  reunited  to  me." 

^^  But  where  is  he  ?  " 

"  Floating  in  space." 

"  And  you  ?  " 

"  In  the  presence  of  God." 

"  All  that  is  very  vague.  Could  you  give  us  a  proof  of 
identity  to  show  us  that  you  are  really  the  daughter  of  Victor 
Hugo,  the  wife  of  Charles  Vacquerie  ?  Do  you  remember 
the  place  where  you  died  ?  " 

"  Yes,  at  Villequier." 

"  Inasmuch  as  the  accident  of  your  shipwreck  in  the  Seine 
is  well  kno^^Ti,  and  since  the  whole  thing  may  be  latent  in 
our  brains,  could  you  please  give  us  other  facts  ?  Do  you 
remember  the  year  of  your  death  ? " 

"  1849." 

"  I  do  not  think  so,"  I  replied,  "  for  I  have  in  my  mind's 
eye  a  page  of  the  Contemplations  where  the  date  of  Septem- 
ber 4,  1843,  is  written.     Has  my  memory  played  me  false  ?  '* 

"  Yes.       It  is  1849." 

"  You  astonish  me  very  much,  for  in  1843,  Victor  Hugo 
returned  from  Spain  on  account  of  your  death,  while  in  1849 
he  was  a  representative  of  the  people  in  Paris.  Moreover, 
you  died  six  months  after  your  marriage,  which  took  place 
in  February,  1843." 

At  this  point,  the  Countess  of  Mouzay  remarked  that  she 
was  very  well  acquainted  with  Victor  Hugo  and  his  family, 
that  they  were  living  then  in  the  street  of  Latour-d'  Auvergne, 
and  that  the  date  1849  must  be  correct. 

I  maintain  the  contrary.    The  spirit  sticks  to  its  fact. 

"  In  what  month  did  the  event  take  place  ?  " 


i 


FEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    213 

"  July." 

"  No,  it  was  in  September.  You  are  not  Leopoldine  Hugo. 
;How  old  were  you  when  you  died?" 

"  Eighteen  years.  They  don't  remember  very  often  to 
decorate  my  tomb  with  flowers." 

"  Where  ? " 

"  At  Pere-Lachaise." 

"  You  are  wrong,  it  was  at  Villequier  that  you  were  buried, 
;  and  I  went  myself  to  visit  your  tomb.  Your  husband, 
;  Charles  Yacquerie  is  also  there,  with  the  two  other  victims 
.  of  the  catastrophe.  You  don't  know  what  you  are  talking 
;  about." 

At  this  point  our  hostess  declares  that  she  was  not  thinking 
1  at  all  of  Pere-Lachaise,  and  that,  in  her  opinion,  Leopoldine 
!  Hugo  and  her  husband  remained  at  the  bottom  of  the  Seine. 

After  luncheon  we  sit  down  again  at  the  seance  table. 
Various  oscillations.     Then  a  name  is  dictated. 

"  Sivel." 

"The  aeronaut?" 

"  Yes." 

"  In  what  year  did  you  die  ?  " 

"1875."      (Correct.) 

"  What  month  ?  " 

"March."     (It  was  April  15.) 

"  From  what  point  did  your  balloon  start  ? " 

"la  Yillette."      (Correct.) 

"Where  did  you  fall?" 

"  In  the  river  Indre." 

All  these  "  elements  "  were  more  or  less  known  to  us.  I 
ask  for  a  more  special  proof  of  identity. 

"  Where  did  you  know  me  ?  " 

"  With  Admiral  Mouchez." 

"  It  is  impossible.  I  first  knew  Admiral  Mouchez  at  the 
time  of  his  appointment  to  the  directorship  of  the  Paris 
Observatory.  He  succeeded  Le  Verrier  in  1877,  two  years 
after  your  death." 

The  table  is  agitated  and  dictates  as  follows: 

"  Give  your  name." 

"  Witold.     Marchioness,  I  love  you  still." 

"  Are  you  happy  ?  " 


214  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

"  Xo,  I  behaved  badly  to  you." 

"  You  know  very  well  that  I  pardon  you,  and  that  I  pre- 
serve the  happiest  recollection  of  you.'' 

"  You  are  too  good." 

These  thoughts  were  evidently  in  the  mind  of  the  lady; 
so  there  was  here  no  more  proof  of  identity  than  in  the  other 
case. 

All  of  a  sudden  the  table  begins  to  move  vigorously,  and 
another  name  is  dictated,  "  Ravachol."  * 

"  Oh,  what  is  he  going  to  say  to  us  ?  " 

I  will  set  down  here  what  he  said,  though  not  without 
shame,  and  with  all  due  apologies  to  my  lady  readers.  Here 
it  is  in  all  its  crudity: 

.    "  Bougres  de  cretins^  voire  sale  gueule  est  encore  plaine 
des  odeurs  du  festin/' 

("  I^asty  blackguards  and  idiots,  your  dirty  throat  is  still 
full  of  the  odors  of  the  feast.") 

"  Monsieur  Ravachol,  this  language  of  yours  is  exquisite ! 
Have  you  nothing  more  refined  than  this  to  say  to  us  ?  " 

"  You  be  blowed !  " 

Certainly  no  one  of  us  was  capable  of  consciously  compos- 
ing such  a  sentence  as  that.  But  everybody  knows  the  words 
that  were  used.  Perhaps  our  conscious  or  sub-conscious 
thoughts  spoke  in  them  ?  Did  they  emanate  from  Mme.  X., 
the  medium  ? 

In  the  uncertainty  into  which  we  were  plunged  by  these 
two  seances,  we  asked  M.  and  Mme.  X.  to  come  and  pass  a 
Sunday  at  Juvisy  and  try  some  new  studies  and  tests. 

They  came,  and  on  Sunday,  October  8,  we  obtained  some 
remarkable  levitations.  But  there  are  some  dregs  of  doubt 
yet  in  our  minds,  and  we  make  engagements  for  another  re- 
union that  day  fortnight. 

On  Sunday,  the  2 2d  of  October,  1899,  in  furtherance  of 
my  desire  to  exercise  careful  control  over  the  investigators, 
I  had  four  broad  boards  nailed  together,  forming  a  vertical 
frame  in  which  I  placed  the  little  table  to  be  used  during  the 
sitting.     This   framework  made  it  impossible  for  the   feet 

*  A  Parisian  Anarchist  executed  for  dynamiting  the  houses  of  the 
Judges  Benoit  and  Bulot.  The  popular  chanson  of  the  Anarchists 
caUcd  La  Ravachole  originated  in  this  man's  deeds  and  personality.  See 
Alvan  {Sanborn's  Paris  and  the  tSocial  Revolutiony  Boston,  1905. —  Trans. 


FEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    215 

of  the  sitters  to  pass  under  the  table ;  and  if  it  rose  in  spite 
of  this,  then  we  should  know  that  the  levitation  was  due 
to   an  unknown  force. 

The  remarks  of  Mme.  X.,  when  she  saw  this  device,  made 
me  think  at  once  that  no  levitation  was  going  to  take  place. 

"  This  power  of  ours,''  said  she,  ^'  is  capricious ;  on  some 
days  we  get  good  results,  on  others  none  at  all,  and  for  no 
apparent  reason." 

"  But  we  shall  perhaps  have  raps,  at  any  rate  ?  " 

^'  Certainly.  We  ought  not  to  anticipate  results.  One 
can  always  try." 

Two  hours  after  luncheon,  Mme.  X.  agrees  to  try  a  sitting. 
No  levitation  whatever  occurred. 

I  had  some  suspicions  that  this  would  be  the  case.  I 
ardently  desired  the  contrary,  and  we  willed  the  levitation 
with  all  our  might.  I  was  expressly  careful  to  have  the 
same  experimenters  (Mme.  X.  and  Mme.  Cail,  and  my- 
self) as  a  fortnight  before,  when  everything  succeeded  so 
admirably, —  same  places,  same  chairs,  same  room,  tem- 
perature, hour,  etc. 

Kaps  indicate  that  a  spirit  wishes  to  speak.  I  notice  that 
the  raps  correspond  to  a  muscular  movement  of  Mme.  X.'a 
leg. 

"  Who  are  you  ?  " 

"  In  the  library  of  the  master  of  the  house  my  name  will 
be  found  in  a  book." 

"  How  shall  we  find  it  ?  " 

"  It  is  written  on  a  piece  of  paper." 

"  In  what  book  ?  " 

''  Astro7iomia." 

"Of  what  date?" 

No  reply. 

"Of  what  color?" 

"  Yellow." 

"Bound?" 

"  No." 

"Stitched?" 

"  Yes." 

"On  what  shelf?" 

"  Hunt." 


216  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

"  It  impossible  to  go  througli  thousands  of  volumes,  and, 
besides,  there  is  not  such  a  book  in  the  whole  library." 

No  reply. 

After  a  series  of  questions  we  learn  that  the  book  is  on 
the  sixth  shelf  of  the  main  body  of  the  library,  to  the  right 
of  the  door.  But  first,  we  all  went  into  the  room  to  make 
sure  it  contained  no  such  book  as  was  described. 

"  Then  the  volume  is  bound  in  boards  ?  " 

^'  Yes,  there  are  four  low  volumes." 

"  We  retum  to  the  room,  and,  sure  enough,  find  in  a 
volume  entitled  Anatomia  Celeste^  Venice,  1573,  a  piece  of 
paper,  upon  w^hich  is  pencilled  the  name  ^'  Krishna."  AYe 
return  to  the  seance  table. 

^'  Is  it  really  you,  Krishna  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  In  what  epoch  did  you  live  ?  " 

"  In  the  time  of  Jesus." 

"  In  what  country  ?  " 

"  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  Himalaya  mountain  system." 

"  And  how  did  you  WTite  your  name  on  this  piece  of 
paper  ? " 

''  By  passing  through  the  thought  of  my  medium." 

Etc.,  etc. 

I  thought  it  would  be  superfluous  to  persist  any  farther. 

Mme.  X.  not  being  able  to  raise  the  table  had  chosen  the 
device  of  table  rappings.  The  calling  up  of  the  Hindu 
prophet,  however,  I  thought  w^as  a  fine  piece  of  audacity. 

The  simplest  hypothesis  is  that  the  woman  went  into 
my  library  and  put  the  piece  of  paper  in  the  book.  In  fact, 
she  was  seen  there.  But  even  had  she  not  been,  the  conclu- 
sion would  be  no  less  certain.  For  the  room  was  open,  and 
Mme.  X.  had  remained  about  an  hour  in  the  next  room, 
detained  by  "  a  nervous  headache."  ^ 

.1 

This  specimen  of  mediumistic  trickery  is,  as  I  have  said, 
one  among  hundreds.  Really,  one  must  be  endowed  with  the 
most  imweariable  perseverance  to  enable  him  to  devote  to 
those  studies  hours  which  would  be  much  better  employed 
even  in  doing  nothing  at  all.     However,  when  one  has  the 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIOjS^S,  IMPEDIME:N^TS    217 

conviction  that  something  real  exists  he  always  returns,  in 
spite  of  incessant  trickery. 

In  the  month  of  May.  1901,  Princess  Karadja  introduced 
to  me  a  professional  medium,  Frau  Anna  Rothe,  a  German, 
whose  specialty  consisted  in  her  alleged  ability  to  spirit 
flowers  into  a  tightly  closed  room  in  broad  daylight. 

I  made  arrangements  for  a  seance  with  her  at  my  apart- 

iments  in  Paris.     During  its  continuance,  bouquets  of  flow- 

I  ers  of  all  sizes,  did,  in  truth,  make  their  appearance,  but 

always  from  a  quarter  in  the  room  the  opposite  of  that  to 

which   our   attention  was   drawn   by   Frau   Rothe   and   her 

manager,  Max  lentsch. 

Being  well  nigh  convinced  that  all  was  fraud,  but  not 
having  the  time  to  devote  to  such  sittings,  I  begged  M.  Gail 
to  be  present,  as  often  as  he  could,  at  the  meetings  which 
were  to  be  held  in  different  Parisian  salons.  He  gladly  con- 
sented, and  got  invited  to  a  seance  at  the  Glement  Marot 
house.  Having  taken  his  station  a  little  in  the  rear  of  the 
flower-scattering  medium,  he  saw  her  adroitly  slip  one  hand 
beneath  her  skirts  and  draw  out  branches  which  she  tossed 
into  the  air. 

He  also  saw  her  take  oranges  from  her  corsage,  and  as- 
certained that  they  were  warm. 

The  imposture  was  a  glaring  one,  and  he  immediately 
unmasked  her,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  assistants,  who 
heaped  insults  upon  him.  A  final  seance  had  been  planned, 
to  be  held  in  my  salon  on  the  following  Tuesday.  But  Frau 
Rothe  and  her  two  accomplices  took  the  train  at  the  Eastern 
Railway  station  that  very  morning,  and  we  saw  them  no 
more.  In  the  following  year  she  w^as  arrested  in  Berlin, 
after  a  fraudulent  seance,  and  sentenced  to  one  year  in  jail 
for  swindling. 

In  this   class  of  things,  cheatings  and  hoaxings  are  as 


218  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

numerous  as  authenticated  facts.  Those  who  are  curious  in 
such  things  will  not  have  forgotten  the  scandalous  hoax  and 
misdemeanor  of  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Williams,  an  American 
woman  who  was  received  in  full  confidence,  in  IS 94,  in 
Paris,  by  my  excellent  friend,  the  Duchess  of  Pomar.  Al- 
ready made  distrustful  by  the  ingenious  observations  of  the 
young  duke,  the  sitters  were  determined  not  to  be  the  butt 
of  her  fooleries  very  long,  and  a  sitting  was  agreed  on.  The 
participators  were  MM.  de  Watteville,  Dariex,  Mangin, 
Pibero,  Wellemberg,  Lebel,  Wolf,  Paul  Leymarie  (son  of 
the  editor  of  La  Revue  Spirite),  etc. 

The  specialty  of  Mrs.  Williams  (who  was,  by  the  way, 
quite  a  stout  person)  was  the  showing  of  apparitions,  or 
ghosts.  Said  apparitions  proved  to  be  manikins,  rather 
poorly  got  up;  the  lady  spectators,  as  well  as  the  gen- 
tlemen, were  quite  disappointed  at  the  absence  of  the  rich 
and  flowing  outlines  of  form  under  the  draperies  of  the 
wretched  puppets.  Thin  and  limp,  tatterdemalion  things, 
they  showed  not  the  faintest  resemblance  to  the  normal 
and  classic  contours  of  woman,  the  lines  of  which  we 
should  have  been  able  to  glimpse  at  least  to  some  extent 
under  the  light  gauze  that  enwrapped  the  figures.  Several 
bright-witted,  but  rather  irreverent,  ladies  took  no  pains  to 
conceal  the  fact  that  they  should  prefer  annihilation  if  it 
were  necessary  to  be  so  .  .  .  '^  reduced,"  so  ''  incom- 
plete "  in  tlie  other  world !  The  gentlemen  added  that  they 
would  certainly  not  be  alone  in  lamenting  such  a  state  of 
things ! 

There  was  no  religious  atmosphere  at  all  about  these  sit- 
tings. The  imposture  was  discovered,  or,  one  might  rather 
say,  seized,  by  M.  Paul  Leymarie.  He  simply  grasps  Mme. 
Impostor  around  the  waist  (having  slipped  behind  the  cur- 
tain for  the  purpose),  and  holds  her  fast  for  the  inspection 
of  the  audience.     Lights  are  brought  on,  and,  in  the  midst 


rKAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIO^^S,  IMPEDIMENTS  219 
of  the  confused  uproar  made  bj  twenty-five  duped  sitters, 
the  heroine  of  the  entertainment  is  compelled  to  show  her- 
self in  flesh  tights,  while  the  whole  apparatus  of  her  ghostly 
puppet-show  is  discovered  in  the  cabinet! 

Mrs.  Williams  had  the  effrontery  to  defend  herself,  a 
little  later,  in  the  American  Journal  Light,  bestowing  the 
playful  ej)ithet  of  ''  bandits  "  upon  those  who  had  unmasked 
her  in  Paris. 

That  was  a  case  of  high  mystification,  of  jugglery  worthy 
of  a  street-corner  mountebank.  But,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  matters  do  not  usually  attain  to  such  a  height  of  au- 
•  dacity,  and  quite  often  fraud  only  intervenes  when  the  gen- 
uine powers  have  become  enfeebled.  This  well  appeared 
in  the  accounts  of  the  ''  girl  torpedo-fish,"  Angelica  Cottin, 
who  attained  a  good  deal  of  notoriety. 

On  the  15th  of  January,  1816,  in  the  village  of  Bouvigny, 
near  Perriere  (Orne),  a  young  girl  thirteen  years  old, 
named  Angelica  Cottin,  light  and  robust,  but  extremely 
apathetic  in  physical  temperament  and  in  morals,  suddenly 
exhibited  strange  powers.  Objects  touched  by  her,  or  by 
her  clothing,  were  forcibly  repelled.  Sometimes,  even  on 
her  mere  approach,  people  were  thrown  into  commotion  and 
excitement,  and  pieces  of  furniture  and  household  utensils 
were  seen  to  move  and  vibrate.  With  some  variations  in 
intensity,  and  with  intermittences,  sometimes,  of  two  or 
three  days,  this  curious  virtue  held  good  for  about  a  month, 
then  disappeared  as  unexpectedly  as  it  had  appeared.  It 
was  authenticated  by  a  large  number  of  persons,  some  of 
whom  submitted  the  little  girl  to  genuine  scientific  experi- 
ments, and  embodied  their  observations  in  formal  reports, 
which  were  collected  and  published  by  Dr.  Tanchou.  This 
gentleman  first  saw  Angelica  on  February  12  (1816),  in 
Paris,  where  she  had  been  taken  to  be  exhibited.  The  man- 
ifestations  (which  had  decreased  from  the  day  when  the 


220  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

basis,  or  usual  course  of  her  habits  had  been  altered)  were 
on  the  point  of  disappearing  altogether.  Yet  they  were  still 
distinct  enough  to  enable  the  investigator  to  draw  \ip  the 
following  note,  which  was  read  to  the  Academy  of  Science, 
on  February  17,  by  Arago,  an  eye-witness  of  the  facts.* 

I  saw  the  young  ^^  electric  "  girl  twice  (says  Dr.  Tanchou). 

A  chair  which  I  was  holding  as  hard  as  I  could  with  my 
foot  and  both  hands  was  forcibly  wrenched  from  me  the 
moment  she  sat  down  in  it. 

A  little  slip  of  paper  which  I  held  poised  on  one  finger 
was  several  times  carried  away  as  if  by  a  gust  of  wind. 

A  dining-table  of  moderate  size,  though  rather  heavy,  was 
more  than  once  displaced  by  the  mere  touch  of  her  dress. 

A  little  paper  wheel,  placed  vertically  or  horizontally  upon 
its  axis  was  put  into  rapid  movement  by  the  radiations  which 
darted  from  this  child's  wrist  and  the  bend  of  her  arm.   f   ■. 

A  large  and  heavy  sofa  upon  which  I  was  seated  was 
pushed  with  great  force  against  the  wall  the  moment  the  girl 
came  to  seat  herself  by  me. 

A  chair  was  held  fast  upon  the  floor  by  strong  men  and  I 
was  seated  on  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  occupy  only  the  half  of 
the  seat.  It  was  forcibly  wrenched  away  from  under  me  as 
soon  as  the  young  girl  sat  down  on  the  other  half. 

One  curious  thing  is  that  every  time  the  chair  is  lifted  it 
seems  to  cling  to  Angelica's  dress.  It  follows  her  for  an 
instant  before  it  becomes  detached. 

Two  little  elder-pith  balls  or  feather-balls,  suspended  by  a 
silken  thread,  are  set  in  motion,  attracted  to  each  other  and 
sometimes  repelled. 

*  See  also  Enqucte  sur  Vauthentidte  des  phenomdnes  electriques 
d'Aiu/elique  Cottin.  Paris,  Germer  Balli^re,  1846.  Also  UExterior- 
isation  de  la  motricite,  by  Albert  de  Rochas. 

t  Lafontaine,  who  also  studied  Angelica's  case,  says  that  "  when  she 
brought  her  loft  wrist  near  a  lighted  candle,  the  flame  bent  over  hor- 
izontal ly,  as  if  continually  blown  upon."  {L'art  de  magnetiser,  p. 
273). 

M.  Pclletier  observed  the  same  thing  in  the  case  of  some  of  his  sub- 
jects, when  they  brought  the  palm  of  the  hand  near  a  candle. 

Specialists  call  these  points  "  hypnogenic  points,"  from  which  fluidic 
streams  radiate. 


Il  TEAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIOIs^S,  IMPEDIMENTS    221 

This  girl's  radiations  of  psychic  force  (emanations)  are 
not  permanently  present  during  all  the  hours  of  the  day. 
They  are  especially  strong  in  the  evening,  from  seven  to  nine 
o'clock,  —  which  leads  me  to  surmise  that  perhaps  her  last 
meal  (taken  at  six  o'clock)  is  not  v^ithout  its  influence. 

The   emanations   are    given   forth   only   from   the   front 

:  part  of  the  body,  especially  at  the  wrist  and  at  the  bend 
of  the  arm.     They  only  occur  on  the  left  side,  and  the  arm  of 

:  this  side  is  of  a  higher  temperature  than  that  of  the  other. 

!  It  gives  off  a  gentle  heat,  as  from  a  part  where  a  lively  reac- 
tion is  going  on.  The  arm  trembles  and  is  continually  dis- 
turbed by  unusual  contractions  and  quiverings  which  seem  to 
be  imparted  to  the  hand  that  touches  it. 

During  the  time  I  observed  this  subject,  her  pulse  varied 
from  105  to  120  pulsations  a  minute.  It  seemed  to  me  fre- 
quently irregular. 

When  she  is  isolated  from  the  common  reservoir  of  elec- 
tric or  magnetic  power,  either  by  being  seated  upon  a  chair 
without  her  feet  touching  the  floor  or  when  placing  them 
upon  the  chair  of  a  person  in  front  of  her,  the  phenomena 
do  not  take  place.  They  also  cease  when  she  is  made  to 
sit  down  on  her  own  hands.  A  waxed  floor,  a  piece  of  oiled 
silk,  a  plate  of  glass  under  her  feet  or  on  the  chair,  all  have 
the  effect  of  antagonizing  and  destroying  for  the  time  the 
electro-dynamic  property  of  her  body. 

During  the  paroxysm  she  can  touch  scarcely  anything 
with  her  left  hand  without  throwing  it  from  her  as  if  it 
burned  her.  When  her  clothes  touch  the  articles  of  furniture 
in  a  room  she  attracts  them,  displaces  them,  and  overturns 
them. 

One  will  understand  this  more  easily  when  it  is  realized 
that  at  every  electric  discharge  she  runs  away  to  escape 
the  pain.  She  says  "  it  pricks"  or  "  stings  "  her  in  the  wrist 
or  bend  of  the  elbow.  Once  when  I  was  feeling  for  her  pulse 
in  the  temporal  artery  (not  having  been  able  to  locate  it  in 
the  left  arm)  my  fingers  chanced  to  touch  the  nape  of  the 
neck.  She  uttered  a  cry  and  drew  back  quickly  from  me.  I 
several  times  assured  myself  of  the  fact  that,  near  the  cere- 
bellum, at  the  place  where  the  muscles  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  neck  are  joined  to  the  cranium,  there  is  a  spot  so  sensitive 


222  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

that  she  allows  no  one  to  touch  it.  All  the  sensations  she 
feels  in  her  left  arm  are  here  echoed  or  repeated. 

The  electric  emanations  of  this  child  seem  to  move  by 
waves,  intermittently,  and  in  succession  through  different 
parts  of  the  anterior  portion  of  the  body.  But  be  that  as 
it  may,  they  are  certainly  accompanied  hy  an  aeriform  cur- 
rent which  gives  the  sensation  of  cold.  I  plainly  felt  upon 
my  hand  a  quick  puff  of  air  like  that  produced  by  the  lips. 

Every  time  the  mysterious  force  strikes  through  her  frame 
and  materializes  in  an  act,  terror  and  dismay  fill  the  mind 
of  this  child,  and  she  seeks  refuge  in  flight.  Every  time  she 
brings  the  end  of  her  fingers  near  the  north  pole  of  a  piece 
of  magnetized  iron,  she  receives  a  severe  shock;  the  south 
pole  produces  no  effect.  If  I  manipulated  the  iron  in  such 
a  way  that  I  could  not  myself  tell  the  north  pole  on  it,  she 
could  always  tell  it  very  well. 

She  is  thirteen  years  old  and  has  not  yet  reached 
the  age  of  puberty.  I  learned  from  her  mother  that  nothing 
like  menstruation  has  yet  appeared.  She  is  very  strong  and 
healthy,  but  her  intellect  is  as  yet  little  developed.  She  is  a 
peasant  cottager  (villageoise)  in  every  sense  of  the  word;  yet 
she  knows  how  to  read  and  write.  Her  occupation  is  the 
making  of  thread  gloves  for  ladies.  The  first  electric  phe- 
nomena began  a  month  ago. 

It  is  desirable  to  add  to  the  foregoing  note  extracts  from 
other  reports.  Here,  for  example,  is  a  citation  from  M. 
Hebert : 

On  the  I7th  of  January, —  that  is  to  say,  the  second  day 
of  the  appearance  of  the  phenomena, —  the  scissors  suspended 
from  her  waist  by  a  cotton  tape,  flew  from  her  without  the 
cord  being  broken,  and  no  one  could  imagine  how  it  got  un- 
tied. This  circumstance,  incredible  from  its  resemblance  to 
the  pranks  of  lightning,  makes  one  think  at  once  that  elec-^ 
tricity  must  play  an  important  role  in  the  production  of  sucl 
astonishing  effects.  But  this  way  of  looking  at  the  thing  ■ 
did  not  last  long.  For  the  miracle  of  the  scissors  only  oc- 
curred twice,  once  in  the  presence  of  the  cure  of  the  village, 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIME:N'TS    223 

who  guaranteed  to  me  -apon  his  honor  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment. In  the  middle  of  the  day  almost  no  effects  were 
obtained,  but  in  the  evening,  at  the  usual  hour,  they  redoubled 
in  intensity.  It  was  at  that  time  that  action  without  contact 
took  place,  and  effects  were  produced  in  organic  living  bodies. 
These  latter  made  their  first  appearance  in  the  form  of  violent 
shocks  felt  in  the  ankles  by  one  of  the  women  laborers  who 
happened  at  the  time  to  be  facing  Angelica,  the  points  of 
their  sabots  being  about  four  inches  apart. 

Dr.  Beaumont  Chardon,  a  physician  of  ^Mortagne,  also 
published  similar  notes  and  observations, —  among  others 
the  following: 

The  repulsion  and  attraction,  hopping  about  and  displace- 
ment, of  a  rather  solid  table ;  of  another  table  six  feet  by  nine, 
mounted  on  casters ;  of  another  four-feet-and-a-half  square 
oak  table ;  of  a  very  massive  mahogany  easy-chair,  —  all 
these  displacements  took  place  through  contact  with  the 
Cottin  girVs  clothes, —  contact  either  involuntary  or  pur- 
posely brought  about  by  experiments. 

There  was  a  sensation  of  violent  prickings  when  a  stick  of 
sealing-Avax  or  a  glass  tube  suitably  rubbed  was  placed  in  con- 
tact with  a  bend  in  the  left  arm  or  with  the  head,  or  simply 
when  brought  somewhat  near  there.  When  the  sealing-wax 
or  the  tube  had  not  been  rubbed,  or  when  they  were  being 
wiped  dry  or  moistened,  there  was  a  cessation  of  effects. 
The  hairs  on  one's  arm,  made  to  slope  or  lie  flat  by  a  little 
saliva,  rose  up  again  at  the  approach  of  the  child's  left  arm. 

I  have  already  remarked  that  this  young  girl  was  brought 
to  Paris  as  a  subject  of  scientific  observation.  Arago,  at  the 
Observatory,  in  the  presence  of  his  colleagues  MM.  Mathieu, 
Tangier,  and  Goujon,  established  the  truth  of  the  following 
phenomena : 

When  Angelica  held  out  her  hand  toward  a  sheet  of 
paper  laid  near  the  edge  of  a  table,  the  paper  was  strongly 
attracted   by    the    hand.     Approaching    a    centre-table,    she 


224  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

grazed  it  with  her  apron,  and  the  table  drew  back  from 
her.  When  she  sat  down  on  a  chair  and  put  her  feet  on  the 
floor,  the  chair  was  thrown  back  violently  against  the  wall, 
and  she  herself  was  thrown  forward  to  the  other  side  of  the 
room.  This  last  experiment,  repeated  several  times,  always 
succeeded.  Neither  Arago  nor  the  astronomers  of  the  Ob- 
servatory were  able  to  hold  the  chair  do\\Ti.  M.  Goujon,  who 
had  sat  down  in  advance  npon  one  half  of  the  chair  which 
was  going  to  be  used  by  Angelica,  was  upset  at  the  moment 
when  she  came  to  share  the  seat  with  him. 

Following  a  favorable  report  of  its  illustrious  perpetual 
secretary,*  the  Academy  of  Science  named  a  commission  to  j 
examine  Angelica  Cottin.  This  commission  confined  its 
efforts  exclusively  to  the  task  of  determining  whether  or  not 
the  electrical  force  of  the  subject  was  similar  to  that  of  the 
machines  or  that  of  the  torpedo-fish.  They  could  not  come 
to  any  conclusion,  probably  on  account  of  the  emotion  excited 
in  the  girl  at  the  sight  of  the  formidable  apparatus  of  ex- 
perimentation;  and  then  her  peculiar  powers  were  already 
on  their  decline.  Thus  the  commission  hastened  to  declare 
all  the  communications  on  this  subject  made  to  the  Academy 
previous  to  this  to  be  null  and  void. 

Upon  this  topic  my  old  master  and  friend  Babinet,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  commission,  wrote  as  follows: 

The  members  of  the  commission  were  not  able  to  verify 
any  of  the  features  announced.  There  was  no  report  made, 
and  Angelica's  parents,  worthy  people  of  the  most  exemplary 
probity,  returned  wdth  her  from  Paris  to  their  own  locality. 
The  good  faith  of  this  couple  and  of  a  friend  who  accompan- 
ied them  interested  me  very  much,  and  I  would  have  given 
an\ thing  in  the  world  to  find  some  reality  in  the  wonders 
that  had  been  proclaimed  about  the  girl.  The  only  remark- 
able thing  she  did  was  to  rise  from  her  chair  in  the  most 

*  Arago. —  Trans. 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    '225 

matter  of  fact  way  in  the  world  and  luirl  it  behind  her  with 
such  force  that  often  the  chair  was  broken  against  the  walL 
But  the  supreme  ex]3eriment, —  that  in  which,  according  to 
her  parents,  the  miracle  was  revealed  of  motion  produced 
without  contact, —  was  as  follows :  She  was  placed  standing 
before  a  light  centre-table  covered  with  a  thin  silken  stuff. 
Her  apron  also  made  of  a  very  light  and  almost  transparent 
silk,  rested  on  the  centre-table  (though  this  last  condition  was 
not  indispensable).  Then,  when  the  electric  force  appeared, 
the  table  was  overturned,  while  "  the  electric  girl ''  main- 
tained her  usual  stupid  impassivity.  I  had  never  personally 
seen  any  success  attained  in  this  particular  feature  of  the 
girl's  performances;  nor  had  my  colleagues  of  the  commis- 
sion of  the  Institute,  nor  the  physicians,  nor  certain  writers, 
who,  with  great  assiduity,  had  attended  all  the  seances  ap- 
pointed at  the  headquarters  of  the  girl's  parents  in  Paris. 
As  for  myself,  I  had  already  overstepped  all  the  bounds  of 
friendly  complaisance,  when,  one  evening  the  parents  came  to 
beseech  me,  in  virtue  of  the  interest  I  had  shown  in  them,  to 
attended  one  more  seance,  saying  that  the  electric  force  was 
going  to  declare  itself  anew  with  great  energy.  I  arrived 
about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  at  the  hotel  where  the 
Cottin  family  was  staying.  I  was  disagreeably  surprised  at 
finding  a  seance  intended  only  for  myself,  and  the  friends 
whom  I  brought  with  me,  overrun  by  a  crowd  of  physicians 
and  journalists  who  had  been  attracted  by  the  announcement 
of  the  prodigies  which  were  to  begin  again.  After  due  ex- 
cuses had  been  made  I  was  introduced  to  a  back  room  which 
served  as  dining-room,  and  there  I  found  an  immense  kitchen 
table  made  of  oak  planks  of  an  enormous  thickness  and 
weight.  At  the  moment  when  dinner  was  being  served  the 
electric  girl  had,  by  an  act  of  her  will  (it  was  said),  over- 
turned this  massive  table,  and,  as  a  necessary  result,  broken 
all  the  plates  and  bottles  that  were  on  it.  But  her  excellent 
parents  did  not  regret  the  loss,  nor  the  poor  dinner  that  re- 
sulted from  it,  on  account  of  the  hope  that  animated  them 
that  the  marvellous  qualities  of  the  poor  idiot  were  going  to 
manifest  themselves  and  receive  the  official  stamp  of  authen- 
ticity. There  was  no  possibility  of  doubting  the  veracity  of 
these  honest  witnesses.     An  octogenarian  who  accompanied 


226  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

me  (M.  M. — ,  the  most  sceptical  of  men)  believed  their  re- 
cital as  I  did ;  but,  after  entering  with  me  the  room  full  of  ^ 
people,  this  distrustful  observer  took  his  stand  in  the  very' 
entrance-door,  alleging  as  a  pretext  the  crowd  in  the  room,  and 
so  placed  himself  as  to  have  a  side  view  of  the  electric  girl 
with  her  centre-table  before  her.  The  crowd  that  faced  the 
girl  occupied  the  farther  end  and  the  sides  of  the  room. 

After  an  hour  of  patient  waiting,  and  all  in  vain,  I  with- 
drew, expressing  my  sympathy  and  my  regrets.  M.  M.  re- 
mained obstinately  at  his  post.  He  pointed  the  electric  girl 
with  his  unwearied  eye,  as  a  crouching  setter  does  a  partridge. 
At  last,  at  the  end  of  another  hour,  when  the  attention  of  the 
company  was  distracted  by  innumerable  preoccupations  and 
several  centres  of  conversation  had  been  formed  —  suddenly 
the  miracle  occurred :  the  centre-table  was  overturned.  Great 
amazement!  great  expectations!  They  were  just  beginning 
to  cry  "  Bravo ! ''  when  M.  M.,  advancing  by  warrant  of  age 
and  the  love  of  truth,  declared  that  ho  had  seen  Angelica,  by  a 
convulsive  movement  of  the  knee,  push  the  table  that  was 
placed  before  her.  He  drew  the  conclusion  that  the  effort  she 
must  have  made  before  dinner  in  the  overturning  of  the  heavy 
kitchen  table  would  have  occasioned  a  severe  contusion  above 
her  knee, —  a  matter  that  was  investigated  and  found  to  be 
true.  Such  was  the  end  of  this  melancholy  affair  in  which 
so  many  people  had  been  duped  by  a  poor  idiot,  who  yet  had 
enough  crafty  cunning  to  inspire  illusion  by  her  very  calm- 
ness and  impassivity.  We  have  still  to  account  for  the  singu- 
lar facts  observed  near  Rambouillet  (see  the  Reports  of  the 
Academy),  at  the  house  of  a  wealthy  manufacturer,  all  whose 
vases  and  other  vessels  of  pottery-ware  burst  into  a  thousand 
pieces  at  the  moment  when  least  expected.  Kettles  and  other 
large  vessels  cast  in  metal  also  flew  into  fragments,  to  the 
great  loss  of  the  proprietor,  whose  troubles,  however,  ceased 
with  the  discharge  of  a  servant,  who  had  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  a  man  who  was  to  occupy  the  factory  so  that  he 
might  get  it  at  a  better  bargain.  Nevertheless,  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  matter  ended  before  it  was  discovered  what 
fulminating  powder  had  been  employed  to  produce  such  cur- 
ious results,  so  new,  and,  apparently,  so  well  proved.  * 

*  Etudes  ct  lectures  sur  les  sciences  d' observations,  vol.  II.,  1856. 


FRAUDS,  MYSTIFICATIONS,  IMPEDIMENTS    227 

Babinet  adds  farther  on  in  the  same  volume  the  foUow- 
f  ing  remarks  on  Angelica  Cottin : 

In  the  midst  of  wonders  which  she  did  not  perform  there 
jlwas  seen  a  very  natural  effect  of  the  first  relaxation  of  muscles 
which  was  curious  in  the  highest  degree.  The  girl,  of  slight 
figure  and  torpid  physique,  who  was  correctly  styled  the 
"  torpedo-fish,"  being  first  seated  on  a  chair  and  then  rising 
very  slowly  (in  the  midst  of  the  movement  she  was  making 
I  in  the  act  of  rising)  had  the  power  of  throwing  backward, 
with  terrifying  suddenness,  the  chair  she  was  leaving,  without 
i  anybody  being  able  to  perceive  the  slightest  movement  of  the 
trunk  of  the  body,  and  solely  by  the  relaxation  of  the  muscle 
which  had  been  in  contact  with  the  chair.  At  one  of  the  test- 
seances  in  the  laboratory  of  physics  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes, 
several  amphitheatre  chairs  of  white  wood  were  hurled 
against  the  walls  in  such  a  way  as  to  break  them.  A  second 
chair,  which  I  had  once  taken  the  precaution  to  place  behind 
that  in  which  the  electric  girl  was  seated  (for  the  purpose  of 
protecting,  if  need  were,  two  persons  who  were  conversing  at 
the  back  part  of  the  room)  was  dra^\^l  along  with  the  pro- 
pelled chair  and  went  with  it  to  arouse  from  their  absent- 
mindedness  the  two  savants.  I  will  add  that  several  young 
employees  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  succeeded  in  performing 
—  although  in  a  less  brilliant  way  —  this  pretty  trick  in 
bodily  mechanics.  In  order  to  get  a  good  idea  of  this  play 
of  the  muscles  by  a  similar  effect,  you  have  only  to  gently 
squeeze  that  part  of  the  muscle  of  some  one's  arm  that  is 
most  developed,  at  the  same  time  that  he  makes  the  motion 
of  opening  and  closing  his  fist  several  times.  You  will  at 
once  feel  the  swelling  up  of  the  muscles  and  divine  the  move- 
ment that  would  result  from  it  were  the  change  of  shape 
made  very  rapid: 

Such  is  the  report  of  the  learned  physicist.  It  is  thus 
that  fraud  once  more  hindered  the  recognition  of  the  reality 
of  phenomena  that  had  been  duly  proved  before.  Accom- 
panying this  there  was  also  a  weakening  of  the  faculties 
of  the  performer.     But  it  is  absurd  to  conclude  from  this 


228  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

that  tlie  observers  of  the  earlier  days  in  this  case  (including 
Arago  and  his  colleagues  of  the  Obser\'atory, —  Mathieu, 
Laugier,  and  Goujon, —  as  well  as  the  examiner  Hebert, 
Dr.  Beaumont  Char  don,  and  others)  were  poor  observers, 
and  were  deceived  by  movements  of  the  foot  of  this  child. 

We  may  allow  for  the  fraud,  conscious  and  unconscious 
of  mediums.  "We  may  deplore  it,  for  it  throws  an  unpleas- 
ant gloom  upon  all  the  phenomena ;  but  let  us  render  justice 
to  incontestable  facts,  and  continue  to  observe  them. 

Qucere  et  invenies!  Seek  and  thou  shalt  find.  The  TJn- 
Tcnown,  the  science  of  to-morrow. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE   EXPERIMENTS    OF    COUNT   DE    GASPAEIN 

One  of  the  most  important  series  of  experiments  that  has 
been  made  on  the  subject  of  moving  tables  is  that  of  Count 
Agenor  de  Gasparin  at  Valleyres,  Switzerland,  in  Septem- 
ber, October,  ISTovember,  and  December  of  the  year  1853. 
The  Count  has  published  formal  reports  of  these  studies  in 
two  large  volumes.*  These  seances  may  be  called  purely 
scientific,  for  they  were  conducted  with  the  most  scrupulous 
care  and  were  under  the  severest  control.  The  table  usually 
employed  had  a  round  oak  top  thirty-two  inches  in  diameter, 
which  rested  on  a  heavy  three-footed  central  column,  the 
feet  being  about  twenty-two  inches  apart.  There  were  usu- 
ally ten  or  twelve  experimenters,  and  they  formed  the  chain 
on  the  table  by  touching  each  other  with  their  little  fingers 
in  such  a  way  that  the  thumb  of  the  left  hand  of  each  opera- 
tor touched  that  of  his  right  hand,  and  the  little  finger  of 
the  right  hand  touched  that  of  the  left  hand  of  his  neighbor. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  author,  this  chain  is  useful,  but  not 
absolutely  necessary.  The  rotation  of  the  table  usually 
began  after  a  waiting  of  five  or  ten  minutes.  Then  it  lifted 
one  foot  to  a  height  that  varied  from  time  to  time,  and  fell 
back  again.  The  levitation  took  place  even  when  a  very 
heavy  man  was  seated  on  the  table.  Kotations  and  levita- 
tions  were  obtained  without  the  contact  of  hands.  But  let 
us  hear  the  author  himself : 

*  Des  Tables  tournantes,  du  Surnaturel  en  general,  et  des  Esprits, 
par  le  comte  Agenor  de  Qasparin,  Paris,  Dentu,  1854- 

229 


230  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

It  is  a  question  of  positive  fact  that  I  wish  to  solve.  The 
theory  will  come  later.  To  prove  that  the  phenomenon  of 
turning  tables  is  real  and  of  a  purely  physical  nature ;  that 
it  can  neither  be  explained  by  the  mechanical  action  of  our 
muscles  nor  by  the  mysterious  action  of  spirits, —  such  is  my 
thesis.  It  is  my  wish  to  state  it  with  precision  and  circum- 
scribe its  limits  here  at  the  very  start.  I  confess  I  find 
some  satisfaction  in  meeting  with  unanswerable  proofs  the 
sarcasms  of  people  who  find  it  easier  to  mock  than  to  exam- 
ine. I  am  well  aware  that  we  have  got  to  put  up  with 
that.  No  new  truth  becomes  evident  without  having  been 
first  ridiculed.  But  it  is  none  the  less  agreeable  to  reach  the 
moment  when  things  assume  their  legitimate  place,  and  when 
roles  cease  to  be  inverted.  This  moment  might  have  been 
long  in  coming.  Eor  a  long  time  I  feared  that  table-phenom- 
ena would  not  admit  of  a  definite  scientific  demonstration; 
that,  while  they  inspired  absolute  certainty  in  the  minds  of 
the  operators  and  witnesses  at  first  hand,  they  would  not  fur- 
nish irrefutable  arguments  to  the  public.  In  the  presence 
of  bare  possibilities,  each  person  would  be  free  to  cherish  his 
o^vn  particular  opinion;  we  should  have  had  believers  and 
sceptics.  The  classification  would  have  taken  place  in  virtue 
of  tendencies  rather  than  by  reason  of  one's  knowledge  or 
ignorance  of  the  facts.  Some,  in  the  agreeable  sensation  of 
their  intellectual  superiority,  would  have  carried  their  head 
very  high,  and  others  would  have  abandoned  themselves  in 
despair  to  the  current  superstitions  of  the  day.  The  truth 
incompletely  demonstrated  would  have  been  treated  as  a  lie, 
and,  what  is  worse,  would  have  ended  by  becoming  such. 

But  thank  God  !  it  will  not  be  so  now.  Our  meetings  were 
real  and  formal  seances^  to  which  the  best  hours  of  the  day 
were  given.  The  results,  verified  with  the  most  minute  care, 
were  embodied  in  formal  and  ofiicial  declarations.  I  have 
these  proces-verhaux  before  me  now,  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
I  could  not  do  better  than  to  take  up  one  after  another  and 
extract  from  each  the  interesting  observations  it  may  con- 
tain. I  shall  thus  follow  the  method  of  certain  historians, 
and  relate  the  truth  rather  than  systematize  it.  The  reader 
will,  as  it  were,  follow  us  step  by  step.  He  will  examine 
and  cliock  my  various  assertions  by  comparing  them;  he  will 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARE  231 

form  his  own  conviction,  and  will  judge  whether  my  proofs 
:  have  that  character  of  frequent  occurrence,  of  persistency, 
:  of  progressive   development   which   false   discoveries,   based 

upon  some  fortuitous  and  poorly  described  coincidence,  never 

have. 

These  are  promising  premises.  We  shall  see  whether 
the  promises  will  be  kept.  The  report  (or  minutes)  of  the 
first  meeting  bears  the  date  of  September  20,  1853.  Numer- 
;  ous  seances  had  been  held  before,  but  it  had  not  been 
thought  necessary  to  write  do^vn  the  results.  What  those  re- 
sults were  will  be  seen  by  the  following  brief  account: 

Only  those  have  an  invincible  conviction  (writes  Count  de 
Gasparin)  who  have  participated  in  seance  studies  frequently 
and  directly,  who  have  felt  under  their  very  fingers  the  pro- 
duction of  those  peculiar  movements  which  the  action  of  our 
muscles  cannot  imitate.  They  know  the  limitations  of  their 
powers  and  where  to  stop.  Eor  they  have  seen  the  table 
refuse  to  rotate  at  all,  in  spite  of  the  impatience  of  the  investi- 
gators, and  in  spite  of  their  clamorous  appeals.  Then  again, 
they  have  been  present  when  it  started  to  move  so  gently,  so 
softly  and  spontaneously  started,  it  can  be  said,  under  fin- 
gers which  hardly'  touched  it.  They  have  at  times  seen 
the  legs  of  the  table  (riveted  by  some  enchantment  to  the 
floor)  refuse  to  budge  on  any  terms,  in  spite  of  the  incite- 
ment and  coaxing  of  those  who  composed  the  chain.  On 
other  occasions  they  have  seen  the  same  table-legs  perform 
levitations  that  were  so  free  and  energetic  that  they  antici- 
pated the  hands,  got  the  start  of  the  orders,  and  executed 
the  thoughts  almost  before  they  were  conceived,  and  with 
an  energy  well-nigh  terrifying.  They  have  heard  with  their 
own  ears  stunning  raps  and  gentle  raps,  the  one  threatening 
to  break  the  table,  the  others  of  such  incredible  fineness  and 
delicacy  that  one  could  scarcely  catch  the  sounds,  and  none 
of  us  could  in  any  degree  imitate  them.  They  have  re- 
marked that  the  force  of  the  levitations  is  not  diminished 
when  the  sitters  are  removed  from  the  side  of  the  table  that 
is  to  form  the  fulcrum.     They  have  themselves  commanded 


232  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

the  table  to  lift  that  one  of  its  legs  over  which  rest  the  only 
hands  that  compose  that  portion  of  the  chain  still  remaining, 
and  the  leg  has  risen  as  often  and  as  high  as  they  wished. 
They  have  obser\^ed  the  table  in  its  dances  when  it  beats 
the  measure  with  one  foot  or  with  two;  when  it  reproduces 
exactly  the  rhythm  of  the  music  that  has  just  been  sung; 
when,  yielding  in  the  most  comic  w^ay  to  the  invitation  to 
dance  the  minuet,  it  takes  on  grandmotherly  airs,  sedately 
makes  a  half  turn,  curtsies,  and  then  comes  forward  turning 
the  other  side !  The  manner  in  which  the  events  took  place 
told  the  experimenters  more  than  the  events  themselves. 
They  were  in  contact  with  a  reality  w^hich  soon  made  itself 
understood. 

The  persevering  experiments  we  had  made  before  the  20th 
of  September  had  already  given  us  proof  of  two  principal 
things, —  the  levitation  of  a  weight  that  the  muscular  action 
of  the  operators  w^as  powerless  to  move,  and  the  reproduction 
of  numbers  by  mind  reading. 

I  shall  now  give  the  formal  declarations  or  reports,  by 
Count  de  Gasparin,  or  at  least  the  essential  parts  of  them. 
I  shall  present  them  here  as  the  author  has  done,  seance  after 
seance.  The  reader  will  judge.  He  is  urged  to  read  the 
reports  with  the  greatest  attention.  They  are  scientific  doc- 
uments of  the  highest  value,  and  quite  as  important  as  the 
preceding  ones. 

Seance  of  September  20 

Some  one  proposed  the  experiment  which  consists  in  caus- 
ing a  table  to  rotate  and  give  raps  while  it  has  on  it  a  man 
weighing  say  a  hundred  and  ninety  pounds.  We  accordingly 
placed  such  a  man  on  the  table,  and  the  twelve  experimenters, 
in  chain,  applied  their  fingers  to  it. 

The  success  was  complete:  the  table  turned,  and  rapped 
several  strokes.  Then  it  rose  up  entirely  off  the  floor  in  such 
a  way  as  to  upset  the  person  who  was  upon  it.  Let  me  be 
permitted  hero,  in  passing,  to  make  a  general  remark.  We 
had  already  had  numerous  meetings.     Our   experimenters, 


EXPERIMEIN-TS  OF  GASPARIJST  233 

among  whom  were  several  young  ladies  of  delicate  physique, 
had  worked  with  very  unusual  perseverance  and  energy. 
Their  bodily  fatigue  at  the  end  of  each  sitting  was  naturally 
very  great.  It  seems  as  if  we  should  therefore  have  ex- 
pected some  nervous  collapses  more  or  less  grave,  to  show 
themselves  among  us.  If  explanations  based  upon  involun- 
tary acts  performed  in  a  state  of  extraordinary  excitement 
had  the  least  foundation  in  fact^  we  should  have  had  trances, 
almost  possessions,  and,  at  any  rate,  nervous  attacks.  Now, 
in  spite  of  the  exciting  and  noisy  character  of  our  meetings, 
it  did  not  happen,  in  five  months  time,  that  any  one  of  us 
experienced  a  single  moment  of  indisposition  or  sickness  of 
any  kind.  We  learned  something  more :  when  a  person  is  in 
a  state  of  nervous  tension,  he  or  she  becomes  positively  unfit 
to  act  upon  the  table.  It  must  be  handled  cheerfully, 
lightly,  and  deftly,  with  confidence  and  authority,  but  with- 
out passion.  This  is  so  true  that  the  moment  I  took  too 
much  interest  in  things  I  ceased  to  obtain  obedience.  If, 
on  account  of  public  discussions  in  which  I  had  been  engaged, 
I  chanced  to  desire  success  too  ardently  and  to  grow  impatient 
over  delay,  I  had  no  longer  any  control  over  the  table ;  it  re- 
main inert. 

Seance  of  September  2Ji- 

We  began  pretty  poorly,  and  were  almost  inclined  to  think 
that  the  net  result  of  the  day's  experiments  would  be 
limited  to  the  two  following  observations,  which  have  their 
value,  to  tell  the  truth,  and  which  our  experience  has  always 
confirmed :  First,  there  are  days  when  nothing  can  be  done, 
nothing  prospers,  although  the  sitters  are  as  numerous,  as 
strong,  and  as  excited  as  ever, —  which  proves  that  the  move- 
ments of  the  table  are  not  obtained  by  fraud  or  by  the  involun- 
tary pressure  of  the  muscles.  Second,  there  are  persons 
(those  among  others  who  are  sickly  or  fatigued)  whose  pres- 
ence in  the  chain  is  not  only  of  no  use,  but  even  detrimental. 
Destitute  themselves  of  the  fluidic  force,  they  seem,  besides, 
to  hinder  its  circulation  and  transmission.  Their  ffood  will, 
their  faith  in  the  table  are  of  no  avail;  as  long  as  they  are 
there  the  rotations  are  feeble,  the  levitations  spiritless,  the 
drafts  dra^Ti  on  the  table  are  not  honored ;  that  one  of  its  feet 


234:  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

facing  them  is  especially  struck  with  paralysis.  Beg  them  to 
retire,  and  immediately  the  vitality  apj^ears  again  and  every- 
thing succeeds  as  if  by  magic.  Indeed,  it  was  only  after  we 
had  taken  this  course  that  we  finally  obtained  the  free  and 
energetic  movements  to  which  we  had  been  accustomed.  We 
had  become  quite  discouraged;  but  when  the  purging  of 
which  I  have  just  spoken  took  place,  lo,  what  a  change ! 
Nothing  seems  difficult  to  us.  Even  those  who  (like  my- 
self) ordinarily  have  only  mediocre  success,  now  think  of 
numbers  and  make  the  table  rap  them  out  with  complete 
success,  or  with  the  slight  imperfection  (that  frequently  oc- 
curs) of  a  tap  too  many,  owing  to  the  delay  in  giving  the 
mental  order  to  stop  the  taps. 

Seeing  that  everything  was  going  according  to  our  wish, 
and  having  decided  to  try  the  impossible,  we  next  undertake 
an  experiment  which  marks  our  entrance  into  a  wholly  new 
phase  of  the  study  and  places  our  former  experimental  demon- 
strations under  the  guarantee  of  a  positively  irrefutable  dem- 
onstration. We  are  going  to  leave  probability  behind  and 
dwell  with  evidence.  We  are  going  to  make  the  table  move 
without  touching  it.  And  this  is  how  we  succeeded  that  first 
time: 

At  the  moment  when  the  table  was  whirling  with  a  power- 
ful and  irresistible  rotation,  at  a  given  signal  we  all  lifted  our 
fingers.  Then  keeping  our  hands  united  by  means  of  the 
little  fingers,  and  continuing  to  form  the  chain  at  a  height  of 
say  an  eighth  or  a  quarter  of  an  inch  above  the  table,  we  con- 
tinued our  circular  movement.  To  our  great  surprise  the 
table  did  the  same;  it  made  in  this  way  three  or  four  turns! 
We  could  scarcely  believe  our  good  fortune ;  the  by-standers 
(witnesses)  could  not  keep  from  clapping  their  hands.  And 
the  way  in  which  the  rotation  took  place  was  as  remarkable  as 
the  rotation  itself.  Once  or  twice  the  table  stopped  follow- 
ing us  because  the  little  accidents  and  interruptions  of  our 
march  had  withdrawn  our  fingers  from  their  regular  dis- 
tance from  tlie  top  of  the  table.  Once  or  twice  the  table 
had  come  to  life  again  —  if  I  may  so  express  myself  —  when 
the  turning  chain  had  again  got  into  the  right  relation  with 
it.  We  all  had  the  feeling  that  each  hand  had  carried  along 
in  its  course  that  portion  of  the  table  immediately  beneath  it. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARE  235 

Seance  of  September  29 

We  were  naturally  impatient  to  submit  rotation  without 
contact  to  a  new  test.  In  the  confusion  of  the  first  success 
we  forgot  to  renew  and  vary  this  decisive  experiment.  When 
we  got  to  thinking  about  it  afterwards  we  saw  that  it  be- 
hooved us  to  do  the  thing  over  again  with  more  care  and  in 
the  presence  of  new  witnesses;  that  it  was,  above  all,  im- 
portant to  produce  the  movement  and  not  merely  to  con- 
tinue it,  and  to  produce  it  in  the  form  of  levitations  in- 
stead of  limiting  it  to  rotations.  Such  was  the  program  of 
our  meeting  of  September  29.  ]^ever  was  program  carried 
out  with  greater  precision.  As  a  preliminary,  we  repeated 
our  successful  feat  of  the  24th.  While  the  table  was  rotating 
rapidly,  the  interlocked  hands  were  lifted  from  it,  though 
continuing  to  turn  above  it  and  form  the  chain.  The  table 
followed,  making  now  one  or  two  revolutions,  and  now  a 
half  or  a  quarter  turn  only.  The  success,  more  or  less  pro- 
longed, was  certain.  We  confirmed  it  several  times.  But 
some  one  might  say  that,  the  table  being  already  in  motion, 
the  momentum  carried  it  along  mechanically  while  we  im- 
agined it  was  yielding  to  our  fluidic  force.  The  objection 
was  absurd,  and  we  would  have  challenged  anybody  to  ob- 
tain a  single  quarter  of  a  turn  without  forming  the  chain, 
however  rapid  might  have  been  the  rotation  imparted. 
Above  all,  would  we  have  challenged  anyone  to  renew  its 
motion  when  it  had  been  for  an  instant  suspended.  How- 
ever, it  is  well  in  such  cases  to  forestall  even  absurd  objec- 
tions, however  little  of  plausibility  they  may  have.  And  this 
particular  objection  might  seem  plausible  to  the  inattentive 
man.  It  was  imperative,  then,  that  we  should  produce  rota- 
tion starting  from  a  state  of  complete  inertia.  This  we  did. 
The  table  being  as  motionless  as  we  were,  the  chain  of  hands 
parted  from  it  and  began  to  turn  slowly  at  a  height  of  about 
three-eighths  of  an  inch  above  its  edge.  In  a  moment  the 
table  made  a  slight  movement,  and  each  of  us  striving  to  draw 
along  by  his  will  that  part  situated  under  his  own  fingers, 
we  succeeded  in  drawing  the  disk  in  our  train.  The  de- 
tails that  followed  resembled  those  of  the  preceding  case. 
There  is  such  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  chain  in  the  air 


236  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

without  breaking  it,  in  keeping  it  near  the  border  of  the 
table  without  going  too  quick  and  thus  destroying  the 
harmonious  relation  established,  that  it  often  happens  that 
the  rotation  stops  after  a  turn  or  a  half-turn.  Yet  it  is 
sometimes  prolonged  during  three  or  even  four  revolutions. 
We  expected  to  encounter  still  greater  obstacles  when  we 
should  undertake  levitation  without  contact.  But  the  matter 
turned  out  quite  otherwise.  This  is  easily  explained  when 
we  remember  that  in  this  case  there  is  no  circular  movement 
and  it  is  much  easier  to  maintain  the  normal  position  of  the 
hands  above  the  table.  The  chain,  then,  being  formed  at  a 
distance  of  an  eighth  of  an  inch  or  so  above  the  round  top 
of  the  table,  we  ordered  one  of  its  legs  to  lift  itself  up,  and 
it  did  so. 

We  were  highly  delighted,  and  repeated  this  pretty  ex- 
periment many  times.  Without  touching  it  in  any  way,  we 
ordered  the  whole  table  to  rise  into  the  air,  and  to  resist  the 
witnesses,  who  had  to  put  forth  effort  to  bring  it  do^Ti  to  the 
floor.  We  commanded  it  to  turn  bottom  side  up,  and  it 
fell  over  with  its  feet  in  the  air,  although  we  never  touched 
it  with  our  fingers,  but  kept  them  in  advance  of  it  as  it  fell, 
at  the  distance  agreed  upon. 

Such  were  the  essential  results  of  this  meeting.  They 
are  such  that  I  hesitate  to  mention  in  the  same  connection  in- 
cidents of  secondary  importance. 

I  will  only  say,  in  passing,  that  the  seance  was  very 
discouraging  at  the  start;  for,  not  only  was  it  found  neces- 
sary to  remove  certain  new  operators,  but  several  of  the  old 
ones  did  not  bring  to  it  their  usual  high  spirits.  The  table 
responded  poorly;  raps  were  made  faintly  and  as  if  with 
reluctance;  the  telepathic  reading  of  numbers  did  not  suc- 
ceed. Then  we  took  a  resolution  from  which  we  derived 
much  benefit :  we  persevered,  and  persevered  gaily ;  we  sang, 
we  made  the  table  dance;  we  gave  up  all  thoughts  of  new 
experiments  and  persisted  in  easy  and  amusing  ones.  After 
a  while  conditions  changed;  the  table  fairly  bounded,  and 
hardly  waited  for  our  orders;  we  were  now  in  condition  to 
try  more  serious  things. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARE  237 

Seance  of  October  7 

A  long  meeting,  and  very  fatiguing.  It  was  principally 
devoted  to  the  trial  of  various  mechanical  devices  which  had 
no  success  whatever, —  such  as  metal  rings ;  frameworks  of 
canvas  or  of  paper  placed  upon  the  table;  plates  on  pivots; 
;  and  spring-keys.  Whether  the  sight  of  all  this  gear  hindered 
the  radiation  of  the  fluidic  force  from  the  operators,  whether 
the  contrivances  themselves  stopped  its  circulation  in  the 
table,  or  whether,  in  fine,  the  natural  conditions  of  the  phe- 
nomenon were  disturbed  in  some  other  way,  it  is  certain  that 
the  results  amounted  to  nothing  or  were  doubtful. 

One  new  experiment  succeeded.  A  plate  turning  on  a 
pivot  held  a  tub.  I  filled  this  tub  with  water,  and  two 
of  my  collaborators  and  I  plunged  our  hands  into  it.  We 
formed  the  chain  and  began  a  circular  walk,  being  careful 
not  to  touch  the  tub.  This  at  once  imitated  our  movement. 
We  repeated  the  thing  several  times  in  succession. 

Since  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  impulse  given  to  the 
water  would  suffice  to  set  in  motion  a  tub  resting  on  so  deli- 
cately balanced  a  plate,  we  at  once  proceeded  to  prove  the 
contrary.  The  water  was  given  a  circular  whirl  causing  it 
to  move  with  much  greater  rapidity  than  when  we  formed 
the  chain;  but  the  tub  moved  not  a  peg.  Undoubtedly  the 
point  remains  to  be  considered  whether  one  of  us  three  did 
not  touch  the  inside  of  the  tub  and  so  determine  its  move- 
ment. To  that  I  reply,  first,  that  the  way  in  which  our 
hands  were  held  in  the  water  obviously  proves  that  none 
of  our  fingers  could  really  touch  bottom;  secondly,  that, 
taking  pains  as  we  did  to  form  the  chain  at  the  centre,  it 
would  have  been  scarcely  less  difficult  for  us  to  touch  the 
vertical  sides  of  the  tub. 

And  yet,  the  doubt  being  not  wholly  inadmissible,  I  class 
this  experiment  among  those  of  which  I  do  not  purpose  to 
make  any  use.  I  wish  to  show  that  I  am  hard  to  please  in 
the  matter  of  evidence. 

The  proof  which  the  rapping  of  numbers  by  mind-reading 
furnishes  has  always  seemed  to  be  one  of  the  most  convinc- 
ing. In  the  sitting  I  am  describing,  it  had  this  special 
feature,   that   each   of   the  ten   operators   in   turn   received 


238  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  communication  of  a  number  in  writing,  the  others  hav- 
ing their  eyes  shut.  Xow,  in  the  whole  ten,  one  alone  failed 
to  obtain  perfect  obedience  from  the  table-leg  which  had  been 
assigned  to  him  by  very  suspicious  witnesses,  oi  by-standers. 
If  my  readers  will  reflect  carefully  they  will  see  that  the 
combinations  of  movements  communicated  and  of  cheating 
tricks  which  such  a  solid  result  as  this  would  require  passes 
far  beyond  the  bounds  of  admissible  things.  To  justify 
it  the  objector  must  invent  a  miracle  much  more  astounding 
than  ours. 

Let  us  turn  again  to  the  finest  of  all  demonstrations,  that 
of  levitation  without  contact.  We  began  by  performing  it 
three  times.  Then,  since  it  was  thought  by  some  that  the 
inspection  of  the  witnesses  could  be  carried  on  in  a  surer  way 
in  the  case  of  a  small  table  than  in  that  of  a  large  one,  and 
with  five  operators  more  certainly  than  with  ten,  we  had  a 
plain  deal  centre-table  brought  which  the  chain,  reduced  by 
half,  sufficed  to  put  in  rotation.  Then  the  hands  were 
lifted,  and,  contact  with  the  table  being  entirely  broken,  it 
rose  seven  times  into  the  air  at  our  command. 

Seance  of  October  8 

Two  circumstances  occurred  to  confirm  the  results  we  had 
obtained  in  preceding  seances.  Among  the  numbers  selected 
for  the  thought-test  the  roguery  of  one  of  the  witnesses  had 
placed  a  zero,  and  the  leg  selected  by  him  to  respond  was  at 
the  left  of  the  operator  and  beyond  the  reach  of  his  muscular 
action.  !Now,  the  command  having  been  given  to  the  leg  and 
no  action  resulting,  we  were  all  feeling  disconsolate,  being 
convinced  that  our  weakness  that  day  was  so  great  that  we 
were  not  going  to  obtain  even  simple  levitations.  I  affirm 
most  emphatically  that  if  movement  had  ever  been  imparted 
by  an  experimenter  to  a  table  leg,  it  would  have  appeared 
at  that  moment.  Our  nerves  were  in  an  exalted  state  and 
our  impatience  was  at  its  height.  Yet  no  movement  of  the 
table  took  place,  and  we  were  consequently  all  the  more 
solaced  when  we  learned  that  the  figure  communicated  had 
been  a  cipher. 

Movement  without  contact  was  accomplished  twice. 

To  our  experiment  of  a  table  that  gave  raps  while  having 


'     expeiiime:n^ts  of  gaspaein"         239 

:  a  man  upon  it,  it  had  been  objected  that  this  man  might  lend 
[  his  aid  to  the  movement,  and  even  incite  it  in  part.  Deter- 
mined to  seek  out  the  truth  with  the  most  anxious  care,  we 
I  had  recognized  a  certain  plausibility  in  this  objection,  and 
had  decided  to  meet  it  fairly.  The  being  who  was  living, 
intelligent,  and  consequently  suspected  must  be  replaced  by 
i  an  inert  weight.  Buckets  filled  with  sand  must  be  placed 
i  in  the  precise  centre  of  the  table,  which  should  then  be 
called  on  to  exhibit  its  skill. 

But  the  day  was  badly  chosen.  After  we  had  placed  on 
the  table  two  buckets,  one  upon  the  other,  both  w^eighing  in 
I  all  143  pounds,  it  was  discovered  that  we  were  unable  to  pro- 
i  duce  the  levitation.  It  was  necessary  for  us  to  content  our- 
\  selves  with  continuing  them  in  circular  movement  after 
they  had  been  started.  The  buckets  were  removed,  the  table 
was  set  in  motion,  and  the  buckets  replaced  while  the  move- 
I  ment  was  at  its  height.  They  did  not  arrest  it  in  the  least, 
but  were  carried  around  with  such  force  that  the  sand  flew 
out  on  all  sides. 

The  remainder  of  the  sitting  was  given  up  to  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  subject  of  (alleged)  divination,  or  guessing. 

When  the  table  was  asked  to  guess  something  known  to  one 

of  the  members  of  the  chain,  it  pretty  frequently  and  quite 

i  naturally  happened  that  it  guessed  it.      It  is  the  case  of 

thought-reading  by  numbers, —  nothing  more,  nothing  less. 

When  it  is  asked  to  guess  a  thing  known  to  a  member 

of  the  company  who  does  not  form  at  the  time  a  part  of 

the  chain,   it   happens   sometimes  that  it  guesses   it.     But 

the  person  in  question  must  be  endowed  w^ith  great  fluidic 

power  and  be  able  to  exercise  it  at  a  distance.     We  did  not 

ourselves   obtain   anything   like   this;   but  others   have   suc- 

ceded,  and  their  testimony  seems  too  well  established  to  be 

k  called  in  question. 

Up  to  the  present  moment,  it  is  plain,  there  is  not  the  least 
trace  of  divination.  It  is  fluidic  action,  near-by  or  distant. 
If  the  tables  divine,  if  they  think,  if  there  are  spirits,  we 
ought  to  get  decisive  responses  in  the  case  where  no  one  knows 
the  facts,  either  in  the  chain  or  out  of  the  chain.  The  prob- 
lem thus  stated,  the  solution  is  not  difiicult. 

Take  a  book.     Do  not  open  it,  but  invite  the  table  to  read 


240  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  first  line  of  the  page  you  will  designate, —  say  page  162 
or  page  354.  The  table  will  not  flinch:  it  will  rap,  and 
will  compose  words  for  you.  It  was  thus,  at  least,  that  it 
always  acted  with  us.  At  any  rate,  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
neither  here  nor  elsewhere,  has  any  spirit,  however  cunning, 
read,  this  simple  line;  nor  will  it  be  able  in  the  future  to 
do  so.  I  recommend  the  experiment  to  the  partisans  of  spirit 
evocations. 

As  to  the  test  of  pieces  of  money  in  a  purse,  hours, 
playing-cards  etc.,  the  tables  betake  themselves  to  a  strict 
calculation  of  probabilities;  they  guess  just  as  much  as  you 
do,  or  as  I  do.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  a  question  of  small 
numbers  of  which  one  can  form  in  advance  an  approximate 
idea,  the  range  of  possible  combinations  is  not  very  extensive. 
The  mind  fijxes  upon  a  number  which  has  a  fairly  good 
chance  of  being  the  true  one,  and  the  proportion  between 
the  failures  of  the  table  and  its  successes  is  in  such  a  case 
just  what  it  would  be  apart  from  all  question  of  miraculous 
divination. 

Seance  of  November  9 

Before  entering  upon  the  description  of  this  sitting, —  a 
very  remarkable  one, — I  will  say  that  neither  the  thermome- 
ter nor  the  mariners'  compass  have  furnished  the  slightest 
indication  of  anything  interesting.  I  thought  I  ought  to 
note  this,  in  passing,  to  show  to  the  reader  that  we  did  not 
neglect  to  employ  instruments  which  seemed  likely  to  put 
us  in  the  way  of  obtaining  a  scientific  explanation.  In 
general,  I  pass  by  that  phase  of  our  work,  as  well  as  the 
different  trials  which  remained  merely  trials,  and  did  not 
lead  to  any  positive  results. 

Our  first  care  was  to  renew  the  experiment  of  the  levitation 
of  an  inert  weight.  It  was  agreed  among  us  this  time  that 
we  would  always  start  from  the  state  of  absolute  immobility 
in  the  object:  we  wanted  to  produce  movement,  not  to  con- 
tinue it. 

The  centre  of  the  table,  then,  having  been  fixed  with  nice 
precision,  a  first  tub  of  sand,  weighing  4G  pounds,  was  placed 
upon  it.  The  legs  easily  rose  from  the  floor  when  they  got 
the  order. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARUST  241 

A  second  tub^  weighing  42  pounds,  was  next  placed  in  the 
middle  of  the  other.  They  were  hoth  lifted  —  less  easily, 
but  very  neatly  and  clearly. 

Then  a  third  tub,  smaller,  and  weighing  28%  pounds,  was 
placed  on  top  of  the  two  others.  The  levitations  took  place. 
We  had  still  further  got  ready  enormous  stones  weighing 
altogether  48%  pounds.  They  were  placed  on  the  third  tub. 
'After  rather  long  hesitation,  the  table  lifted  several  times  in 
succession  each  of  its  three  legs.  It  lifted  them  with  a  force, 
a  decision,  an  elan,  which  surprised  us.  But  its  strength, 
already  put  to  so  many  proofs,  could  not  resist  this  last  one. 
Bending  under  the  powerful  swaying  motion  imparted  by 
the  total  mass  of  165  pounds,  it  suddenly  hrohe  down,  and  its 
massive  centre-post  was  split  from  top  to  bottom  —  to  the 
great  peril  of  the  operators  on  the  side  of  whom  the  entire 
load  rolled  off. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  comment  on  such  an  experiment.  It 
answers  all  demands.  Our  united  muscular  force  would  not 
have  sufficed  to  determine  the  movements  that  took  place.  A 
mass  of  inert  matter  free  from  the  suspicion  of  being  oblig- 
ing, had  replaced  the  person  whose  complicity  was  held  in 
suspicion.  Finally,  when  the  three  legs  had  been  lifted,  each 
in  turn,  critics  no  longer  had  as  a  resource  the  insinuation 
that  we  had  caused  the  weight  to  be  laid  more  on  one  side 
than  on  the  other. 

Inasmuch  as  our  poor  table  had  been  wounded  on  the  field 
of  honor  and  could  not  be  repaired  on  the  spot,  we  got  a  new 
one  which  much  resembled  it.  But  it  was  a  little  larger  and 
a  little  lighter. 

The  interesting  point  was  to  be  settled  whether  we  were 
going  to  be  obliged  to  wait  for  it  to  be  charged  with  the  psy- 
cho-physical fluid.  The  occasion  was  a  famous  one  for  solv- 
ing this  important  problem :  Where  does  the  fluid  reside  ? 
—  in  the  operators  or  in  the  piece  of  furniture.  The  solu- 
tion was  as  prompt  as  it  was  decisive.  Scarcely  had  our 
hands,  in  chains,  been  placed  upon  this  second  table  than  it 
began  to  revolve  with  the  most  unexpected  and  the  most 
comic  rapidity !  Evidently,  the  fluid  was  in  us,  and  we  were 
free  to  apply  it  in  succession  to  different  tables. 

We  lost  no  time.     In  the  mood  in  which  we  then  were, 


I 


1 

242  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

movement  without  contact  must  succeed  better  than  ever. 
Kor  did  we  deceive  ourselves  in  so  thinking.  We  first  devel- 
oped rotations  without  contact  to  the  number  of  five  or  six. 

As  to  levitations  without  contact,  we  discovered  a  method 
of  proceeding  that  renders  their  success  easier.  The  chain, 
formed  a  few  millimetres  above  the  top  disk,  is  arranged  so 
as  to  go  in  the  direction  in  which  the  movement  is  to  take 
place ;  the  hands  the  nearest  to  the  leg  called  on  to  rise  are 
outside  of  and  beyond  the  top ;  they  draw  near  and  pass  grad- 
ually by,  while  the  hands  that  are  opposite,  and  which  had 
at  first  advanced  toward  the  same  leg,  move  away  from 
it  while  they  attract  it.  It  is  during  this  progression  of 
the  chain,  while  all  our  wills  are  fixed  upon  a  particular  spot 
on  the  wood,  and  when  the  orders  to  levitate  are  forcibly] 
given,  that  the  foot  quits  the  ground  and  the  table-top  follows 
the  hands, —  to  the  point  of  upsetting,  if  one  did  not  keep 
hold  of  it. 

This  levitation  without  contact  was  produced  about  thirty 
times.  We  produced  it  by  each  of  the  three  legs  in  succes- 
sion, in  order  to  remove  every  pretext  for  criticism.  More- 
over, we  watched  the  hands  with  scrupulous  care.  If  the 
reader  will  please  observe  that  this  sur\'eillance  was  exercised 
during  thirty  operations  without  detecting  the  slightest  con- 
tact, I  think  it  will  be  concluded  that  the  reality  is  hence- 
forth placed  beyond  all  doubt. 

Seance  of  November  21 

The  chief  characteristic  of  this  seance  was  the  absence  of 
that  one  of  our  number  who  exercised  the  greatest  authority 
at  the  table. ^'  In  working  without  her  we  were  put  in  a 
position  to  establish  two  things:  first,  that  one  cannot  with 
impunity  do  without  an  extraordinary  gifted  experimenter; 
and,  second,  that  one  can,  nevertheless,  do  without  him  or 
her,  if  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  that  success,  although 
less  brilliant  in  this  case,  is  not  impossible.  I  call  special 
attention  to  this  last  point,  as  well  as  to  the  frequent  modifi- 
cations of  our  personnel,  for  the  benefit  of  suspicious  persons 
who,  not  knowing  the  mental  worth  of  the  persons  in  ques- 
tion, might  bo  disposed  to  place  to  the  account  of  their  dex- 

*  The  lady  who  soon  after  was  styled  "  the  medium." 


I  EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARIX  243 

iterity  the  results  to  which  they  essentially  contribute.  The 
psycho-physical  working  power  of  a  "  sensitive  "  table-turner 
is  of  a  mixed  nature :  a  resolute  posture  and  a  circular  move- 
Iment  are  not  sufficient  to  give  birth  to  it.  Besides  this,  and 
I  above  all,  there  is  needed  the  will. 

Our  will  having  at  last  asserted  itself,  and  muscular  pres- 
sure having  yielded  its  jDlace  to  the  pressure  of  commands, 
the  iluidic  rotation  arrives,  after  five  or  six  minutes  of  con- 
centration of  our  thoughts.  We  felt,  indeed,  keenly  that 
some  important  person  was  lacking  and  that  we  did  not  pos- 
sess our  usual  power.  However,  we  were  determined  to  suc- 
ceed, even  at  the  price  of  greater  mental  fatigue. 
i  So  we  took  up  boldly  our  most  difficult  feat ;  namely,  move- 
•ments  without  contact.  Rotations  without  touch  were  ob- 
tained thrice.  I  should  add  that  they  were  very  incomplete, 
—  a  quarter  of  a  turn,  or  a  half-turn  at  most. 

As  to  levitations  without  touch  our  success  was  more  decis- 
ive ;  but  it  was  purchased  at  the  price  of  a  very  considerable 
expenditure  of  force.  After  each  levitation  we  had  to  rest, 
and,  when  we  had  reached  No.  9  we  were  absolutely  obliged 
to  stop,  overcome  with  fatigue.  One  must  have  had  personal 
knowledge  of  such  experiments  to  understand  what  drafts 
they  make  upon  one's  attention  and  energy,  and  at  what  point 
it  is  indispensible  to  will,  and  to  will  peremptorily,  that 
such  and  such  a  knot  of  wood  in  the  table  shall  follow  the 
opened  fingers  that  are  alluring  it  at  a  distance. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  our  attempt  was  crowned  with 
success,  and  we  could  end  the  sitting  with  less  exhausting 
exercises. 

The  idea  came  to  us  then  and  there  to  try  our  powers  on  a 
large  table  with  four  legs.  It  had  often  been  claimed  that 
three-legged  centre-tables  alone  would  respond  to  our  man- 
ipulations. It  was  time  to  furnish  undeniable  proof  to  the 
contrary.  So  we  took  a  table  three  feet  five  inches  in  di- 
ameter, a  folding  half  of  which  (independent  of  the  leg  that 
supports  it  when  it  is  raised)  can  be  turned  up  at  will. 

Scarcely  were  our  fingers  in  place  than  the  table  began 
a  rotation  with  noisy  bustle,  the  sprightliness  of  which  sur- 
prised us.  It  thus  showed  that  tables  with  four  legs  were  no 
more  refractory  than  others.     In   addition  to  this,   it  fur- 


244  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EORCES 

nished  a  new  argument  injfavor  of  one  of  our  former  observa- 
tions,—  that  the  fluid  is  in  the  persons  and  not  in  the  tables. 
In  fact  the  movement  of  the  large  table  took  place  almost 
immediately,  and  before  it  could  be  considered  as  charged; 
with  fluid. 

The  next  task  before  us  was  to  make  it  give  raps  with  its 
different  legs.  We  began  with  those  fastened  to  one  half  of 
the  top,  three  in  number.  They  rose  from  the  floor  two  at  a 
time  with  such  force  that  at  the  end  of  a  moment  one  of  tha 
casters  flew  to  pieces.*  Kow  it  is  difficult  to  form  an  idea 
of  the  intensity  w^iich  a  fraudulent  action  of  the  fingers  must 
have  acquired  in  order  to  exercise  a  leverage  upon  so  heavy  a 
table,  and  launch  it  into  the  air  to  such  a  height. 

There  remained  the  leg  of  the  table  which  was  independ- 
ent of  the  top.  We  thought  it  would  obey  as  well  as  the 
others.  But  no !  In  vain  did  we  pour  out  the  most  prodi- ' 
gal  and  pressing  invitations:  it  was  never  willing  to  rise, 
either  along  with  its  right-hand  neighbor  or  with  its  neighbor 
on  the  left.  Our  next  thought  was  that  this  was  due  to 
the  persons  placed  near  it,  and  certain  members  of  the  chain 
changed  seats.  In  vain !  All  combinations  failed  one  after 
another. 

We  drew  great  deductions  from  this  circumstance.  But 
since  it  was  refuted  later,  when  the  contumacious  leg  yielded 
perfect  obedience  at  another  meeting,  I  will  not  take  the 
public  into  our  confidence  by  a  display  of  our  reasonings  on 
the  subject.  I  will  only  ask  that  two  things  be  noted;  first, 
the  care  we  took  to  verify  many  times  the  phenomena  before 
affirming  them;  and,  second,  that  we  have  here  once  more  a 
fine  refutation  of  the  critics  who  assert  that  muscular  action 
can  explain  everything.  If  this  were  so,  why  did  not  muscu- 
lar action  lift  the  free  leg  as  well  as  those  fastened  tight  to  the 
table  ?  It  could  have  done  so  just  as  easily ;  and  yet  for  some 
unknown  reason,  but  one  evidently  foreign  to  the  laws  of 
mechanics,  only  the  attached  legs  consented  to  move. 

Seance  of  November  27 

We  wTre  in  full  muster ;  but  two  or  three  of  the  operators 

were  slightly  indisposed.     On  the  whole,  whatever  was  the 

*  This  was  the  only  table  with  casters  that  the  operators  made  use  of. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPAEm  245 

cause,  the  occasion  was  scarcely  remarkable  for  anything 
except  the  almost  total  absence  of  fluidic  power.  For  a  sin- 
gle moment  we  had  a  little  of  it.  A  half-hour  of  action  and 
two  hours  and  a  half  of  inertia  —  this  was  our  net  result. 

Nothing  was  more  lamentable,  and  at  the  same  time  more 
curious,  than  to  see  us  about  the  different  tables,  passing 
from  one  to  another,  enjoining  them  to  do  the  most  elemen- 
tary things,  and  only  obtaining  a  weak  and  languid  rotation, 
which  soon  stopped  altogether. 

Seance  of  December  2 

I  should  have  been  vexed  to  have  to  close  my  recital  with 
so  dull  and  spiritless  a  record  as  the  preceding  one.  By 
good  fortune  the  last  of  our  reports  gives  me  the  right  to  leave 
a  totally  different  impression  on  the  reader's  mind. 

We  were  in  fine  temper.  Perhaps  the  beautiful  weather 
helped.  It  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  noticed  this.  What  is 
certain  is  that  the  very  same  persons  who,  on  November  27, 
had  only  a  half-hour  of  success  and  had  passed  the  rest  of 
the  sitting  in  beseeching  in  vain  for  anything  better  than  poor 
i  abortive  rotations  or  faint  raps,  to-day  governed  the  table  with 
1  an  authority,  a  quickness,  and,  if  I  may  so  put  it,  an  elasticity 
of  bearing  that  left  nothing  to  be  desired. 

The  large  table  with  four  legs  was  set  in  motion.  And 
this  time,  the  ease  with  which  the  free  leg  lifted  its  share 
of  the  table  proved  that  we  were  right  in  not  drawing  too 
definite  conclusions  from  its  former  refusal.  Every  time 
that  we  tried  to  lift  without  contact  that  part  of  the  table 
the  farthest  removed  from  myself  I  felt  the  table-leg  nearest 
me  gradually  approach  and  press  against  my  leg.  Struck 
with  this  occurrence,  which  took  place  several  times  I  drew 
the  conclusion  that  the  table  was  gliding  forward,  not  having 
enough  force  to  rise.  We  were,  then,  exercising  a  percepti- 
ble influence  on  this  large  table  without  touching  it  in  any 
way. 

In  order  the  better  to  assure  myself  of  it,  I  left  the  chain 

and  observed  the  movement  of  the  feet  of  the  table  on  the 

floor.     It  ranged  from  fractions  of  an  inch  to  several  inches. 

•  When  we  then  tried  to  turn  up  witliout  contact  the  folding 

leaf    of    a    gaming-table    covered  with  cloth,    we    obtained 


246  HYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

the  same  result :  the  folding  leaf  would  not  yield  to  our  in- 
fluence, but  the  entire  table  advanced  in  the  direction  of  the 
prescribed  movement.     JSTow,  I  ought  to  add  that  the  gliding 
was  not  at  all  easy,  for  the  floor  of  our  room  was  rough  and  i 
uneven. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  the  moment  \ 
when  this  gliding  movement  ordinarily  begins.  It  occurs  at  :j 
precisely  the  same  time  that  the  levitation  without  contact 
takes  place  when  that  manifestation  is  in  process.  When  the 
portion  of  the  chain  which  is  pushing  on  has  just  advanced 
beyond  the  side  of  the  table-top,  where  it  begins  to  turn,  and 
when  that  portion  of  the  chain  that  is  pulling  has  just 
crossed  the  middle  point  in  its  recession,  then  the  ascen- 
sional movement  —  or,  in  default  of  that,  the  gliding  motion 
— manifests  itself.  Our  fluidic  power  is  then  at  its  maxi- 
mum, precisely  at  the  instant  when  our  mechanical  power  is 
at  its  minimum,  when  the  hands  that  are  pushing  have  ceased 
to  act  (supposing  the  case  of  fraud)  and  when  the  hands  that 
pull  are  powerless  to  act. 

Let  us  now  revert  to  our  ordinary  table.  We  tried  to  j)ro- 
duce  rotations  and  levitations  without  contact,  and  had  com- 
plete   success. 

Such  reports  as  the  foregoing  are  of  more  value  than  all 
the  dissertations.  They  show  the  undeniable  reality  of  the 
levitation  not  total,  but  partial, —  of  the  table  which  re- 
mained in  an  oblique  position  poised  on  two  legs  only.  They 
show  also  rotations  and  levitations  without  contact,  as  well  as 
glidings  under  the  influence  of  a  natural  force  hitherto  only 
slightly  studied. 

Levitations  of  a  heavy  table,  having  on  it  a  man  weighing 
191  pounds,  or  of  tuhs  of  sand  and  stones  weighing  165 
pounds, —   no  denial  of  these  occurrences  can  be  admitted. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  movements  of  the  table  dancins: 
in  accordance  with  the  rhythm  of  certain  airs,  of  its  over- 
turnings,  of  its  obedience  to  the  orders  given.  These  facts 
have  been  observed  precisely  as  mechanical,  physical,  chem- 
ical, meteorological,  astronomical  facts  have  been  observed. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARIN"  247 

To  the  above  reports  I  will  add  here  a  supplementary  ex- 
periment described  in  the  preface  of  Count  de  Gasparin's 
book: 

Certain  distinguished  savants  to  whom  I  had  communi- 
cated the  results  w^e  had  secured,  agreed  in  assuring  me  that 
levitations  without  contact  would  have  the  character  of  ab- 
solute certain  proof  if  we  succeeded  in  verifying  them  by 
the  following  practical  device :  ^'  Sprinkle  flour  upon  the 
table,"  they  said,  "  at  the  instant  your  hands  have  just  left 
it ;  then  produce  one  or  more  levitations ;  finally  assure  your- 
selves that  the  layer  of  flour  bears  not  the  slightest  sign  of 
any  touch,  and  all  objectors  will  be  dumb." 

Why,  it  is  precisely  this  experiment  that  we  have  per- 
formed successfully  several  times.  Let  me  give  a  few  de- 
tails : 

Our  first  trial  had  succeeded  very  badly.  We  used  a 
coarse  sieve  which  we  had  to  move  to  and  fro  over  the  entire 
table.  This  produced  the  double  inconvenience ;  first,  of  sus- 
pending too  long,  and  so  of  nullifying  the  action  of  the 
operators ;  and,  secondly,  of  spreading  a  layer  of  flour  much 
too  thick.  The  buoyant  spring  and  impulse  of  the  wills  of 
the  operators  was  abated,  the  fluidic  action  was  thwarted,  the 
table-top  got  chilled  down,  so  to  speak ;  nothing  moved.  The 
mischief  went  so  far  that  the  table  not  only  refused  us  levi- 
tations and  rotations  without  contact,  but  almost  all  the  or- 
dinary ones. 

Then  a  brilliant  idea  came  to  one  of  us.  We  possessed  one 
of  those  bellows  used  in  blowing  sulphur  upon  vines  attacked 
by  the  grape-mildew.  In  place  of  sulphur  we  put  flour 
into  it,  and,  so  prepared,  began  the  test. 

The  conditions  were  most  favorable.  The  weather  was 
dry  and  warm,  the  table  went  leaping  under  our  fingers, 
and,  indeed,  before  the  order  to  lift  hands  had  been  given, 
the  greater  part  of  the  band  of  us  had  spontaneously  ceased 
to  touch  the  table-top.  Then  the  command  rings  out;  the 
whole  chain  lifts  up  from  the  table,  and  at  the  same  instant 
the  bellows  covers  its  entire  surface  with  a  light  dusting  of 
flour.     Xot  a  second  had  been  lost;  the  levitation  without 


248  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

contact  had  already  taken  place.  But  to  leave  no  doubt,  the 
thing  was  repeated  three  or  four  times  in  succession. 

That  done,  the  table  was  scrupulously  examined ;  no  finger 
had  touched  it,  or  even  grazed  it  in  the  slightest  degree. 

The  fear  of  grazing  it  involuntarily  had  even  been  so  great 
that  the  hands  had  acted  fluidicaliy  from  a  height  much 
greater  than  in  previous  sittings.  Each  one  had  thought  he 
could  not  raise  his  hands  too  high,  and  the  hands  removed 
to  such  a  distance  from  the  top,  had  not  had  recourse  to  any 
of  the  mancEuvres  or  passes  of  which  we  had  at  other  times 
made  use.  Kee^Ding  its  place,  above  the  table  to  be  lifted, 
the  chain  had  preserved  its  form  intact ;  it  had  made  hardly  a 
perceptible  motion  in  the  direction  of  the  movement  it  w^as 
producing  at  a  distance  from  the  table. 

I  will  add,  finally  that  we  did  not  content  ourselves  with 
a  single  experience.  A  careful  insj^ection  following  each  of 
several  levitations,  always  showed  that  the  dust-like  layer 
of  flour  was  absolutely  untouched;  and  no  portion  of  the 
table  had  escaped  its  tell-tale  coat  of  white. 

The  author  of  these  reports  himself  estimates  as  follows 
the  results  he  has  recorded: 

The  phenomena  observed  confirm  and  elucidate  each 
other.  Large  four-legged  tables  compete  with  three-legged 
ones.  Inert  weights,  placed  on  these,  come  forward  as  sub- 
stitutes for  persons  suspected  of  giving  a  helping  hand  to  the 
table  charged  wdth  the  task  of  lifting  them.  At  last  the 
great  discovery  arrives  in  its  turn:  we  begin  by  continuing 
without  contact  movements  already  initiated,  and  we  end  by 
producing  them;  we  succeed  almost  in  creating  the  process, 
to  such  an  extent  that  these  extraordinary  facts  manifest 
themselves  sometimes  in  an  uninterrui^tcd  series  of  fifteen 
or  thirty  performances.  The  glidings  round  out  the  subject 
by  throwing  light  on  one  phase  of  action  at  a  distance:  they 
reveal  it  as  powerless  (at  times)  to  lift  the  table,  but  able  to 
draw  it  along  over  the  floor. 

Such  is  the  rapidly  sketched  account  of  our  progress. 
Taken  just  by  itself  alone,  it  constitutes  a  solid  proof  and  I 
recommend  a  study  of  it  to  serious  men.     It  is  not  thus  that 


EXPERIME^^TS  OF  GASPARE  249 

error  proceeds.  Illusions  originating  in  accident,  or  chance, 
do  not  thus  resist  a  long  study,  and  do  not  pass  unmasked 
through  a  long  series  of  experiments  that  justify  them  more 
and  more. 

The  reading  of  numbers  in  others'  minds,  and  the  bal- 
ance of  forces,  merit  special  consideration. 

When  all  the  operators  but  one  are  ignorant  of  the  number 
to  be  materialized  by  raps,  the  operation  (unless  it  is  fluidic) 
ought  to  proceed  either  from  the  person  who  knows  the  num- 
ber and  furnishes  at  once  the  movement  and  the  arrest,  or 
else  it  ought  to  proceed  from  a  relation  instinctively  estab- 
lished between  that  person  who  furnishes  the  arrest  and  his 
vis-a-vis  who  furnishes  the  movement.  Let  us  examine  both 
hypotheses. 

The  first  is  untenable ;  for,  in  the  case  where  some  one 
chooses  a  leg  of  the  table  upon  which  the  operator  who  knows 
the  number  can  exercise  no  muscular  action,  the  leg  thus 
designated  none  the  less  rises  at  his  command. 

The  second  is  untenable ;  for,  in  the  case  where  some  one 
indicates  a  zero,  the  movement  which  ought  to  take  place 
does  not  do  so.  Nay  more.  If  you  place  at  loggerheads  two 
persons  placed  on  opposite  sides  of  the  table  and  enjoin  each 
to  make  a  different  number  triumph,  the  more  powerful 
operator  secures  the  execution  of  the  chief  number  although 
his  vis-a-vis  is  interested  not  only  in  not  furnishing  it  to  him, 
but  in  arresting  it. 

I  know  that  this  matter  of  the  divining  of  numbers  thought 
of  is  in  bad  odor.  It  lacks  a  certain  pedantic  and  scientific 
form.  Yet  I  have  not  hesitated  to  insist  on  it;  for  there 
are  few  experiments  in  which  is  better  manifested  the  mixed 
character  of  the  phenomenon, —  physical  power  developed 
and  applied  outside  of  ourselves  by  the  effect  of  our  will. 
Just  because  it  forms  the  great  offense,  or  stumbling  block,  I 
am  unwilling  to  be  shame-faced  about  it.  I  maintain,  be- 
sides that  this  is  just  as  scientific  as  anything  else.  True 
science  is  not  tied  to  the  employment  of  such  and  such  a 
process  or  such  and  such  an  instrument.  That  which  a  fluid- 
ometer  would  show  would  be  no  less  scientifically  demon- 
strated than  what  is  seen  with  the  eyes  and  estimated  by  the 
reason. 


260  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Let  us  go  on,  however.  We  have  not  jet  reached  the  end 
of  our  proofs.  One  of  these  has  always  especially  struck 
me :     I  mean  the  proof  derived  from  failures. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  movements  are  produced  by  the 
action  of  our  muscles,  by  involuntary  pressure.  Now  here 
are  the  same  operators  who  yesterday  secured  from  the 
table  the  fulfilment  of  their  most  capricious  desires;  their 
muscles  are  as  strong,  their  vivacity  is  as  great,  their  desire 
to  succeed  is  perhaps  keener  —  and  yet  nothing !  absolutely 
nothing !  A  whole  hour  will  pass  w^ithout  the  least  rotation 
beginning;  or,  if  there  are  rotations,  levitations  are  im- 
possible to  procure;  what  little  is  done  by  the  table  is  done 
feebly,  dismally,  and  as  if  reluctantly.  I  repeat  it  again, 
the  muscles  have  not  changed;  then  why  this  sudden  inca- 
pacity ?  The  cause  remaining  identically  the  same,  whence 
comes  it  that  the  effect  varies  to  such  a  degree  ? 

"  Ah !  "  says  an  objector,  "  you  are  talking  of  involuntary 
pressure,  and  say  nothing  about  voluntary  pressure,  of  fraud, 
in  short.  Don't  you  see  that  the  cheaters  may  be  present  at 
one  sitting  and  not  appear  at  another,  that  they  may  act 
one  day  and  not  give  themselves  the  trouble  on  the  next  ? '' 

I  will  reply  very  simply,  and  by  facts. 

"  The  cheaters  are  absent  when  w^e  do  not  succeed !  " 
But  it  has  happened  many  a  time  that  our  personnel  has 
not  been  changed  in  any  way.  The  same  persons,  abso- 
lutely the  same,  have  passed  from  a  state  of  remarkable 
power  to  a  state  of  comparative  impotence.  And  that  is  not 
all.  If  there  exists  no  operator  whose  presence  has  pre- 
served us  from  failures,  no  more  does  any  exist  whose  ab- 
sence has  rendered  us  incapable  of  success.  With  and 
without  each  one  of  the  members  of  the  chain  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  performing  all  the  experiments, —  all  without  ex- 
ception. 

But  ^  the  cheaters  do  not  take  so  much  pains  every  day ! ' 
The  pains  would  be  great  indeed,  and  those  who  infer  fraud 
little  think  what  prodigies  they  are  invoking.  The  accusa- 
tion is  an  absurdity  which  verges  on  silliness,  and  its  silliness 
removes  its  sting.  One  does  not  take  offense  at  things  like 
that.  But  come  now,  let  us  suppose  for  the  moment  that 
Yalleyres  were  peopled  with  disciples  of  Bosco,  that  pres- 


EXPERIMEXTS  OF  GASPAKIjS^  251 

tidigitation  were  generally  practised  there,  and  that  it  had 
been  thrust  under  our  very  eyes  for  five  months,  and  under 
the  eyes  of  numerous  and  very  suspicious  witnesses  without 
a  single  case  of  perfidy  having  been  pointed  out.  We  have 
so  well  concealed  our  game  that  we  have  invented  a  secret 
telegraphic  code  for  the  experiment  of  reading  numbers,  a 
particular  turn  of  the  finger  for  moving  the  most  enormous 
masses,  a  method  of  gradually  lifting  tables  that  we  do  not 
seem  to  touch.  We  are  all  liars,  all;  for  we  have  been  mu- 
tually watching  each  other  for  a  long  time  now,  and  do  not 
denounce  anybody.  Xay,  more,  the  contagion  of  our  vices 
is  so  swift  to  take  that,  as  soon  as  we  admit  a  stranger,  a 
hostile  witness,  into  the  chain,  he  becomes  our  accomplice ; 
he  voluntarily  closes  his  eyes  to  the  transmission  of  signals, 
to  muscular  efforts,  to  the  repeated  and  prolonged  suspicious 
actions  of  his  next  neighbors  in  the  chain  !  Well  and  good ; 
suppose  we  grant  all  that,  we  shall  not  have  got  farther  along 
for  that.  It  will  still  remain  to  be  explained  why  our  cheat- 
ers sometimes  do  nothing  at  the  very  moment  when  it  would 
be  to  their  interest  to  succeed.  It  has  happened,  indeed,  that 
a  certain  sitting  at  which  we  had  many  witnesses  and  a 
great  desire  to  convince  turned  out  to  be  a  mediocre  one. 
Such  and  such  another,  under  the  same  conditions,  was,  on 
the  contrary,  a  brilliant  success. 

There  you  have  real  and  important  inequalities,  and  they 
dare  to  talk  to  us  of  muscular  action  and  of  fraud. 

Fraud  and  muscular  action!  Here  for  instance  is  a  fine 
opportunity  to  put  them  to  the  proof.  We  have  just  placed 
a  weight  on  the  table.  This  weight  is  inert  and  cannot 
be  accessory  to  any  device.  Praud  is  all  around  it  perhaps, 
but  it  is  not  in  the  tubs  of  sand.  This  weight  is  equally 
divided  among  the  three  legs  of  the  table,  and  they  are 
going  to  prove  it  by  each  one  rising  in  turn.  The  total 
load  weighs  165  pounds,  and  we  scarcely  dare  to  increase  it, 
for,  as  it  is,  it  was  enough,  one  day,  to  break  our  very 
solid  table.  Very  well;  now  let  someone  try  to  move  this 
weight.  Since  muscular  action  and  fraud  must  explain 
everything,  it  will  be  easy  for  them  to  put  the  mass  in 
motion.  Xow  they  cannot  do  it.  Their  fingers  contract 
and  the  knuckles  whiten  without  their  obtaining  a  single 


252  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

levitation,  whereas,  some  moments  later,  levitations  will 
take  place  at  the  touch  of  the  same  fingers,  which  gently 
graze  the  table's  top  and  make  no  effort  at  all,  as  any  one 
may  easily  convince  himself. 

Certain  very  ingenious  scientific  rules  of  measurement,  for 
the  invention  of  which  I  cannot  claim  the  credit,  put  us  in 
the  way  of  translating  into  figures  the  effort  which  the  rota- 
tion or  levitation  of  the  table  demands,  when  loaded  in  the 
way  just  described.  With  the  above-mentioned  weight  of 
165  pounds,  rotation  is  secured  by  means  of  a  lateral  trac- 
tion of  about  17%  pounds,  while  levitation  is  only  obtained 
by  a  perpendicular  pressure  of  132  pounds  at  least  (which 
I  will  reduce,  however,  to  110,  in  deference  to  the  presumed 
wishes  of  the  critic,  and  on  the  supposition  that  the  pressure 
might  not  be  absolutely  vertical).  Several  deductions  are 
to  be  drawn  from  these  figures. 

In  the  first  place,  muscular  action  may  cause  the  table 
to  turn,  but  it  cannot  lift  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  ten 
operators  have  one  hundred  fingers  applied  to  its  surface. 
Kow,  the  vertical,  or  quasi-vertical,  pressure  of  each  finger 
cannot  exceed  twelve  ounces  on  the  average,  the  chain  being 
composed  as  it  is.  They  only  develop,  then,  a  total  pressure 
of  06  pounds,  which  is  quite  insufiicient  to  produce  levita- 
tion. 

In  the  next  place,  this  striking  thing  befalls,  that  the  phe- 
nomenon which  muscular  action  could  easily  produce  is  pre- 
cisely the  one  that  we  most  rarely  and  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  obtain,  and  that  the  phenomenon  which  muscular 
action  could  not  compass  is  the  one  the  most  habitually  real- 
ized when  the  chain  is  formed.  Why  does  not  our  invol- 
untary impulse  always  make  the  table  turn  ?  Why  should 
not  our  ''  fraud  "  always  procure  such  a  triumph  ?  Why, 
as  a  general  thing,  do  we  only  succeed  in  effecting  that 
which  is  mechanically  impossible  ? 

I  advise  people  who  like  to  make  fun  of  table-turnings 
not  to  investigate  them  too  closely,  and  to  beware  of  giving 
too  careful  attention  to  our  supreme  demonstration, —  that 
of  movements  without  contact,  for  it  will  leave  them  not  the 
slightest  pretext  for  incredulity. 

Thus   the   fact    is   established.     Multiplied   experiments, 


expeeime:n^ts  of  ^aspaein         253 

diverse  and  irrefutable  proofs,  which  are,  moreover,  joined 
in  the  closest  solidarity,  give  to  the  flnidic  action  the  stamp 
of  complete  certainty.  Those  who  have  had  the  patience 
to  follow  me  thus  far  will  have  felt  their  suspicions  vanish- 
ing one  after  another,  and  their  faith  in  the  new  phenomenon 
more  and  more  strengthened.  They  will  have  made  good 
wliat  we  ourselves  have  substantiated  and  made  good;  for 
no  one  has  opposed  more  difficulties  to  table-turning  than 
Lave  w^e,  no  one  has  shown  himself  more  inquisitorial  and 
exacting  respecting  them. 

It  is  not  our  fault  if  the  results  have  been  conclusive  (and 
more  and  more  so),  nor  ours  the  blame  if  they  have  recip- 
rocally confirmed  each  other,  if  they  have  ended  by  forming 
one  body  and  taking  on  the  character  of  perfect  evidence. 
To  study,  to  compare,  to  repeat  and  repeat  again,  and  to 
finally  exclude  all  that  admits  of  doubt  or  question  —  this 
was  our  duty.  Xor  have  we  failed  to  perform  it.  I  make 
no  affirmations  in  these  reports  which  I  have  not  proved 
over  and  over  again. 

Such  are  the  memorable  experiments  of  the  Count  de  Gas- 
parin.  Their  worth  will  be  appreciated  by  all  who  read 
them.  I  have  been  anxious  to  reproduce  these  careful  re- 
ports; for  they  establish  of  themselves  the  absolute  and  un- 
deniable reality  of  these  movements  that  contradict  the  nor- 
mal law  of  gravitation.  Let  us  hear  the  Count's  explanatory 
hypotheses. 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  the  care  I  have  taken  to 
confine  myself  to  the  verification  of  the  facts,  w^ithout 
hazarding  any  explanatory  hypothesis.  If  I  have  employed 
the  word  ^'  fluid,"  it  was  to  avoid  circumlocutions.  Strict 
scientific  precision  would  have  demanded  that  I  always 
write  "  the  fluid,  the  force,  or  physical  agent  whatever  it  may 
be."  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  having  been  a  little  less  exact 
than  this  in  mv  lanori^ac:e.  It  was  enough  that  mv  thought 
was  perfectly  clear.  That  we  have  to  do  with  a  fluid,  prop- 
erly so  called,  in  the  phenomena  of  table  turning  and  lift- 
ing I  cannot  absolutely  affirm.     I  affirm  that  there  is  an 


264  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

agent,  and  that  this  agent  is  not  supernatural,  that  it  is 
physical,  imparting  to  physical  objects  the  movements  which 
our  will  determines. 

Our  will,  I  have  said.  And  this  is  in  fact  the  funda- 
mental idea  we  have  gathered  out  of  this  subject  of  a  physi- 
cal agent.  It  is  this  which  characterizes  it,  and  it  is  this  also 
which  compromises  it  in  the  eyes  of  a  good  many  folks.  They 
might,  perhaps,  be  resigned  to  a  new  agent,  if  it  were  the 
necessary  and  exclusive  product  of  the  hands  forming  tho 
chain,  if  only  it  were  true  that  certain  positions  or  certain 
acts  insured  its  manifestation.  But  this  is  not  the  case 
with  it:  the  mental  and  the  physical  must  combine  in  order 
to  give  it  birth.  Here  are  hands  that  tire  themselves  out 
in  forming  the  chain,  and  yet  obtain  no  movement :  the  will 
has  not  been  mingled  in  the  act.  Here  is  a  will  that  com- 
mands in  vain :  the  hands  have  not  been  placed  in  a  suit- 
able position. 

We  have  thrown  light  upon  both  these  sides  of  the  phe- 
nomenon, for  they  are  both  essential. 

Another  fact  has  been  noted  by  us,  and  ought  to  enter 
into  a  description  of  the  physical  agent  in  question:  this 
agent  inheres  in  the  persons  and  not  in  the  table.  Let  the 
operators,  when  they  are  in  rapport,  pass  to  a  new  table  and 
encircle  it :  they  will  be  able  immediately  to  exercise  all  their 
authority  over  it;  their  will  will  continue  to  dispose  of  the 
physical  agent  and  to  make  use  of  it  for  rapping  numbers 
mentally  selected  by  persons  present  or  for  producing  move-i 
ments  without  contact. 

Such  are  the  facts.  The  explanation  of  them  will  come 
later.  It  is,  however,  very  natural  to  want  to  find  this  at 
once,  and  to  make  hypotheses  which  may  be  regarded 
as  possible,  if  not  true.  I  have  taken  the  risk  of 
doing  this,  and  I  do  not  repent  of  it.  Was  it  not  im- 
perative to  prove  to  our  opponents  that  they  have  not  even 
the  pretext  of  '^  a  scientific  impossibility  "  ?  Hypotheses 
have  their  legitimate  place  and  their  utility,  even  if  they 
are  incorrect.  If  they  are  admissible  in  themselves,  that 
is  sufiicient,  for  that  defends  the  facts  to  which  they  are 
applied  from  the  accusation  of  monstrosity.  The  critic  has 
no  longer  the  right  to  demand  the  previous  question. 


1 


EXPERIME:^^TS  OF  GASPARIX  255 

Seeing  that  it  ^Yas  asked  for  on  all  sides,  I  have  risked 
[the  following  statement: 

You  assert  that  onr  pretensions  are  false,  for  the  simple 
ireason  that  thej  cannot  he  true !  Very  well.  But,  at  all 
events,  allow  me  ta  lay  before  you  certain  postulates.  Sup- 
pose, in  the  first  place,  that  you  do  not  know  everything, 
that  the  moral  and  even  the  material  nature  of  man  have 
obscurities  which  you  have  not  been  able  to  remove.  Sup- 
pose that  the  smallest  blade  of  grass  springing  up  in  the 
field,  that  the  smallest  grain  reproducing  its  kind,  that  the 
finger  of  your  hand  in  the  act  of  executing  the  order  you 
give  it,  enclose  mysteries  that  surpass  the  powers  of  the 
learned  doctors  to  fathom,  and  which  they  would  declare 
absurd  if  they  were  not  compelled  to  recognize  them  as  real. 
Then,  in  the  second  place,  suppose  that  certain  men  who  will 
so  to  do,  and  whose  hands  are  joined  one  to  another  in  a 
certain  way,  give  birth  to  a  fluid  or  to  a  special  kind  of 
force.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  admit  that  such  force  exists; 
you  will  only  agree  with  me  that  it  is  possible.  There  is 
no  natural  law  opposed  to  it  that  I  know  of. 

Xow,  let  us  take  one  more  step.     The  will  disposes  of 

;  this  fluid.  It  gives  an  impulse  to  external  objects  only 
when  we  w^ill  it,  and  in  quarters  selected  by  us.  Would 
there  be  anything  impossible  in  this  ?  Is  it  an  unheard- 
of  thing  that  we  transmit  movement  to  matter  that  is  out- 

'  side  of  ourselves  ?  Why,  we  do  so  every  day,  and  every 
instant ;  our  mechanical  action  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
this.  The  horrible  thing  in  your  eyes  doubtless  is  that  we 
do  not  act  mechanically !  But  there  is  something  besides 
mechanical  action  in  this  world.  There  are  physical  causes 
of  movement  that  are  something  else  than  this.  The  caloric 
that  penetrates  a  living  body  produces  dilatation  there ;  that 

;  is  to  say,  universal  movement.  The  loadstone  placed  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  piece  of  iron  attracts  it,  and  makes 

I  it  leap  across  the  intervening  space. 

I  "  Yes,''  some  one  Avill  exclaim,  ^^  we  should  make  no  ob- 
jection, provided  your  pretended  fluid  did  not  obey  one  spe- 
cial direction  in  its  progress.  If  it  went  straight  on,  as 
a  blind  force,  well  and  good!  It  would  then  be  like  the 
caloric,  that  dilates  everything  it  meets  in  its  passage.     It 


256  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

would  be  like  the  magnet  wliich  attracts  indiscriminately 
toward  a  fixed  point  all  the  particles  of  iron  in  its  vicinity. 
As  for  you,  your  invention  of  the  theory  of  a  rotative  fluid 
calls  vividly  to  mind  the  explanation  of  the  dormitive  prop- 
erties of  opium." 

It  is  impossible  to  more  completely  misunderstand  things. 
ISTo  one  dreams  of  a  ''  rotative  fluid."  All  we  maintain  is, 
that,  when  the  fluid  is  emitted  and  imparts  either  repul- 
sion or  lateral  attraction  to  a  piece  of  furniture  resting  on 
legs,  a  very  simple  mechanical  law  transforms  the  lateral 
action  into  rotation. 

I  do  not  say,  '^  The  tables  turn  because  my  fluid  is  ro- 
tative." I  say,  ^^  The  tables  turn,  because,  when  they  re- 
ceive an  impelling  force  or  undergo  an  attraction,  they  can- 
not help  turning."  Stated  in  this  way,  it  is  a' little  less  naive. 
Consequently,  I  should  be  under  no  obligation  to  undertake 
the  cause  of  the  poor  university  scholar  of  the  Maladc 
Imaginaire,  and  defend  his  famous  reply :  ''  Opium  facit 
dormire  quia  est  in  eo  virtus  dormitiva''  (''opium  puts 
people  to  sleep  because  it  has  the  sleep-producing  virtue 
or  property  " ) .  Nevertheless,  I  can't  help  it,  out  it  must 
come:  I  find  the  reply  an  excellent  one.  I  doubt  whether' 
the  savants  have  found  a  better  one  to  this  day,  and  I  ad- 
vise them  to  resign  themselves  sometimes  to  the  following 
kind  of  reasoning :  "  Opium  puts  us  to  sleep  because  it 
puts  us  to  sleep;  things  are  because  they  are."  In  other, 
words,  I  see  the  facts  and  do  not  know  the  causes.  I  do  not- 
know.  "  I  do  not  know !  "  terrible  words,  which  one  finds 
difficulty  in  pronouncing !  Now,  I  suspect  very  strongly  that 
the  sly  roguishness  of  Moliere  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  doc- 
tors, who  pretend  to  know  everything,  invent  explanations 
which  do  not  explain,  and  do  not  know  how  to  accept  the 
facts  while  waiting  for  more  light. 

But  there  is  more  to  come.  The  hypothesis  of  the  fluid 
(a  pure  hypothesis,  remember)  must  still  prove  that  it  is  a 
hypothesis  reconcilable  with  the  different  circumstances  of 
the  phenomenon.  The  table  docs  not  merely  turn:  it  lifts 
its  legs  up,  it  raps  numbers  mentally  indicated  to  it;  in  a 
word,  it  obeys  the  will,  and  obeys  it  so  well  that  the  removal 
of  contact  does  not  terminate  its  obedience.     The  impelling 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPAEIX  257 

force  or  lateral  attraction  which  account  for  rotations  cannot 
account  for  levitations. 

But  why  ?  Because  the  will  directs  the  fluid  now  into 
one  leg  of  the  table,  now  into  another.  Because  the  table 
identifies  itself  with  us,  after  a  fashion,  becomes  a  limb  of 
our  own  body,  and  produces  movements  thought  of  by  us  in 
the  same  manner  as  our,  arm  produces  them.  Because  we 
have  no  conscious  knowledge  of  the  direction  imparted  to 
the  fluid,  and  govern  the  movements  of  the  table  without 
imagining  that  any  kind  of  fluid  or  force  whatever  is  in 
action. 

In  all  our  acts,  in  all  without  exception,  we  have  no  con- 
sciousness of  the  direction  imparted  by  our  will.  When 
you  explain  to  me  how  I  lift  my  hand,  I  will  explain  to  you 
how  I  make  the  table-leg  rise  from  the  floor.  I  ''  willed  to 
raise  my  hand."  Yes,  and  I  also  willed  to  lift  this  table- 
leg.  As  for  the  executing  of  the  mandates  of  the  will,  the 
putting  into  play  of  the  muscles  required  to  lift  the  hand, 
or  of  the  fluid-power  required  to  lift  the  table-leg,  I  have 
no  knowledge  of  what  passes  in  me  apropos  of  this. 
Strange  mystery,  and  one  which  ought  to  inspire  in  us  a 
little  modesty!  There  is  in  me  an  executive  power,  a 
power  of  such  a  nature  that,  when  I  have  willed  such  or 
such  an  act,  it  addresses  detailed  orders  to  the  different 
muscles  and  sets  in  motion  a  hundred  complicated  move- 
ments to  bring  about  a  final  result  which  has  been  merely 
thought  of,  merely  willed.  That  miracle  goes  on  within  me, 
'  and  I  understand  it  not  at  all,  and  never  shall  understand 
it.  Do  you  not  agree  that  the  same  executive  power  can 
give  to  the  fluid  the  directions  it  gives  to  the  muscles?  I 
have  willed  to  play  a  sonata  on  the  piano,  and,  unknown  to 
me,  something  within  me  has  given  orders  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  muscular  acts.  I  have  willed  that  the  leg  of 
this  table  should  be  lifted  up,  and,  unknown  to  me,  some- 
thing within  me  has  directed  the  attractions  and  impulsions 
of  the  fluid  to  tlie  designated  place. 

The  hypothesis  of  a  fluid  is,  then,  defensible.     It  accords 

with  the  nature  of  things  and  with  the  nature  of  man.     I 

have  no  wish  to  go  farther  and  furnish  at  once  a  definitive 

!  explanation.     But  I  am  not  worrying.     Let  the  facts  once 


258  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  PORCES 

be  admitted,  and  explanations  will  not  be  wanting.  Whatjj 
seems  impossible  now  will  seem  very  simple  then.  About 
incontestable  things  no  trouble  is  made.  We  are  so  con- 
stituted that,  after  we  have  asserted  the  impossibility  of 
everything  we  do  not  comprehend,  we  declare  comprehensi- 
ble all  that  w^e  have  recognized  as  real.  People  are  every- 
where to  be  met  with  who  shrug  their  shoulders  when  you 
speak  to  them  of  table-turnings  and  who  make  nothing  of 
the  Puck-like  performance  of  the  electric  current  in  putting 
the  girdle  of  its  circuit  around  the  earth  in  the  fraction  of 
a  moment,  and  who  find  the  miracle  of  the  transmission  of 
the  mental  and  moral  qualities  of  the  fathers  to  the  children 
a  very  simple  thing  to  understand!  The  tables  of  the 
psychic  experimenter  cannot  escape  the  common  lot.  Their 
phenomena,  absurd  to-day,  are  to-morrow  self-evident. 

These  experiments  of  Count  de  Gasparin  and  his  associ- 
ates have  been  known  for  over  half  a  century,  and  it  is  really 
incomprehensible  that  even  the  fact  of  the  levitation  of  tables 
and  of  their  movements  has  continued  to  be  denied.  Verily, 
if  the  tables  are  sometimes  light,  it  must  be  confessed  that 
the  human  race  is  a  little  heavy. 

, As  to  the  theory,  the  hypothesis  of  the  fluid, —  felix  qui 
potuit  rerum  cognoscere  causas  (Happy  the  man  who  can 
know  the  cause  of  things) —  I  shall  return  to  this  mat- 
ter in  the  chapter  on  explanatory  theories.  But  it  is  incon- 
testable that,  in  such  experiences,  we  act  by  means  of  an 
invisible  force  emanating  from  us.  One  must  be  blind  not 
to  admit  that. 

After  a  series  of  experiments  so  admirably  conducted  we 
can  understand  that  the  author  might  well  be  allowed  to 
indulge  in  a  little  derision  of  obstinately  prejudiced  unbe- 
lievers. In  closing  this  chapter,  I  cannot  forego  the  pleas- 
ure of  citing  Count  de  Gasparin  apropos  of  the  learned 
negations  of  Babinet  and  his  emulators  of  the  Institute. 

The  savants  are  not  the  only  ones  to  stand  on  their  dig- 


EXPERIMEi^TS  OF  GASPAEIiST  259 

nity.  I  also  stand  on  mine,  and  I  make  bold  to  think  that 
a  certificate  signed  with  my  name  would  not  be  rated  by 
anybody  as  a  piece  of  imposture  or  frivolity.  It  is  known 
that  I  am  in  the  habit  of  weighing  my  words;  it  is  known 
that  I  love  the  truth,  and  that  I  will  not  sacrifice  it  on  any 
consideration;  it  is  known  that  I  prefer  to  admit  an  error 
rather  than  persist  in  it;  and  when,  after  a  long-continued 
inquiry,  I  persist  with  a  firmer  and  profounder  conviction 
than  ever,  the  import  or  scope  of  the  declaration  I  make  is 
not  to  be  misapprehended. 

I  can  tell  you,  in  the  next  place,  that  the  testimony  of 
the  eyes  has,  in  my  opinion,  a  scientific  value.  Inde- 
pendently of  instruments  and  figures,  on  which  I  set  the 
highest  values,  I  believe  that  the  true  seeing  of  things 
may  serve.  I  believe  that  this  also  is  of  itself  an  instru- 
ment If  a  sufficient  number  of  good  pairs  of  eyes  have  as- 
certained and  proved,  ten,  twenty,  a  hundred  times,  that  a 
table  is  put  in  motion  without  contact;  if,  furthermore,  the 
explanation  of  the  fact  by  fraudulent  or  invokmtary  con- 
tacts passes  the  limits  which  must  be  assigned  to  incredulity, 
the  conclusion  is  clear.  Nobody  is  warranted  in  crying  out : 
"  You  have  neither  fluidometer  nor  alembic ;  you  do  not  give 
a  specimen  of  your  physical  agent  in  a  bottle;  you  do  not 
describe  how  it  acts  upon  a  column  of  mercury  or  upon  the 
dip  of  a  needle.  We  don't  believe  you,  for  you  have  done 
nothing  but  see." 

''  I  do  not  believe  you  because  you  have  done  nothing 
but  see !  ''  "I  do  not  believe  you  because  I  have  not  seen 
with  my  own  eyes !  "  So  many  pedants,  so  many  objec- 
tions. They  hardly  take  the  trouble  to  agree  among  them- 
selves; in  a  war  waged  against  the  tables  any  weapon  is 
fair,  nothing  comes  amiss. 

I  do  not  wish  to  forget  that  scientists  were  still  talking 
only  of  rotations  at  the  moment  when  Faraday  invented  his 
disks.*  In  the  presence  of  a  phenomenon  so  inadequate, 
and,  let  us  admit  it,  so  suspicious,  we  can  understand  how 

*  The  allusion  is  to  Faraday's  explanation  of  Arago's  discovery  in 
the  magnetism  of  rotation.  Faraday  showed  that  a  rotating  disk  of 
non-magnetic  metal  would  draw  after  it  in  similar  rotation  a  magnetic 
needle    suspended   over    it,   and   even    a   hea\'y   magnet.     See   Professor 


260  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

the  savants  showed  themselves  sceptical  and  contented  them- 
selves with  flimsy  refutations.     They  proportioned  the  num- 
ber  and   size  of  their   weapons   to   the   appearance   of  the 
enemy.     The  one  among  them  who  showed  the  most  -pene- 
tration,   and  who  proposed  the  most  plausible  explanation, 
is  most  assuredly   Chevreul.     His   theory   of   the   tendency 
to   movement   is   incontestably   true.     It   explains   how   the 
objects  we  suspend  from  our  finger  finally  take  a  vibratory 
movement  in  the  direction  indicated  by  our  will.     I  am  not 
astonished  that  some  have  thought  this  theory  sufficient  to 
explain  how  experimenters  can,  in  the  end,  impart  a  rota- 
tion  to   the   table   and  participate  in  the  movement  them- 
selves.    I    need    not    say    that    our    proved    levitations    of 
weights,  and  our  movements  without  contact,  will  not  hence-; 
forth  permit  anyone  to  take  refuge  in  such  an  explanation.] 
If  all   the   tendencies   to   movement   were   united   into   one'- 
they  would  not  be  able  to  produce  at  a  distance  an  impelling 
power,  nor  move  a  mass  that  mechanical  action  could  not; 
set  in  motion. 

Really,  the  learned  doctors  ought  not  to  throw  out  to  the  ■ 
public  these  explanations  which  do  not  explain.  They ; 
ought  rather  to  get  to  work  and  show  us,  in  fact,  how  to 
set  about  the  lifting  directly  and  mechanically  of  a  weight, 
of  220  pounds  without  applying  to  the  task  a  force  of  220  : 
pounds. 

But  they  prefer  to  use   insulting  expressions,   and  then  i 
proceed  to  invent  some  theory  or  other  which  has  only  one 
little  fault  —  that  it  has  no  legs  to  walk  with.     The  recentv 
article  of  M.  Babinet  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  is  a,\ 
masterpiece  in   its  way.     If  I   needed  to   be  convinced   of 
the  reality  of  the  phenomena  of  table-turaing,  etc.,  I  should 
most  assuredly  have  been  convinced  by  the  reading  of  this 
refutation  of  it. 

In  the  opinion  of  M,  Babinet,  the  phenomena  of  the  tables 
offer  no  difficulty  whatever !  Happy  science  of  physics,  " 
happy  science  of  mechanics  which  has  an  answer  ready  f or ^ 
everything!  We  poor,  ignorant  fellows  thought  we  had| 
detected  something  extraordinary,  and  did  not  know  we  were. 
merely  obeying  two  extremely  elementary  laws, —  the  law 
of  unconscious  movements,  and,   above  all,  that  of  nascent 


EXPERIMENTS  OE  GASPARm  261 

movements,  movements  the  power  of  which  seems  to  sur- 
pass that  of  developed  movements. 

As  far  as  regards  unconscious  movements,  M.  Babinet 
adds  nothing  to  previous  explanations  —  nothing  but  the 
story  of  that  lord  (an  English  lord,  he  says)  whose  horse 
was  so  admirably  trained  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  only 
accessary  for  one  to  think  the  movement  one  wished  to  have 
him  execute,  and  he  instantly  realized  it.  I  am  thoroughly 
convinced,  as  is  M.  Babinet,  that  the  aforesaid  lord  gave 
an  impulse  to  the  bridle  without  suspecting  it,  and  I  am 
just  as  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  experimenters  whose 
hands  are  touching  a  table  may  exert  a  pressure  of  which 
ithey  are  not  conscious.  Only  —  I  think  there  should  be 
some  proportion  between  the  cause  and  the  effect.  Suppose 
the  movements  are  unconscious:  they  are  none  the  less 
vigorous  for  all  that.  The  burden  is  upon  M.  Babinet 
and  his  followers,  to  prove  that  the  very  same  fingers  that 
in  vain  clench  themselves  till  they  are  stiff  in  the  endeavor 
to  lift  a  weight  of  eighty-eight  pounds,  will  lift  double  this 
weight  by  simply  being  unconscious  that  they  are  making 
any  effort. 

My  honorable  and  learned  opponent  will  not  hear  of 
movements  obtained  without  contact.  "  Everything  that 
has  been  said  about  action  exercised  at  a  distance  ought 
to  be  banished  to  the  realm  of  fiction.''  The  judgment  is 
curt  and  summary.  Movements  without  contact  are  a  fic- 
tion,—  first  because  they  are  impossible;  secondly  because 
powdered  soapstone  has  hindered  the  rotation  of  a  table; 
and,  finally,  because  perpetual  movement  is  impossible. 

Movements  at  a  distance  are  impossible !  To  be  strictly 
logical,  M.  Babinet  ought  to  have  stopped  there,  remem- 
bering the  reply  made  by  Henry  IV  to  the  magistrates  who 
had  thus  begun  an  address  to  him: 

^'  We  did  not  give  a  salute  of  cannon  on  the  approach 
of  Your  Majesty,  and  that  for  three  good  reasons.  In  the 
first  place,  because  w^e  had  no  cannon  — " 

"  That  reason  is  sufficient,"  said  the  king. 

We  are  fain  to  believe  that  M.  Babinet  himself  has  lit- 
tle doubt  about  his  "  impossibility."  He  has  acted  wisely 
in  doing  so;  for  this  impossibility  is  based  entirely  on  a 


262  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

vicious  circle  of  reasoning.  "  Is  there  a  single  known  ex- 
ample of  movement  produced  without  a  force  acting  from 
the  outside  ?  Xo.  Well,  movement  at  a  distance  would 
very  j)l^i^ily  ^^^"^^  place  by  an  active  external  force.  There- 
fore movement  at  a  distance  is  impossible."  I  feel  very- 
much  disposed  to  say  to  M.  Babinet,  in  the  technical  lan- 
guage of  the  schools,  that  his  major  premise  is  true  and 
that  his  conclusion  would  be  legitimate  if  his  minor  were 
not  purely  and  simply  a  begging  of  the  question.  You 
claim  that  there  is  no  active  force  exterior  to  the  table 
which  lifts  it  without  the  touch  of  the  hands.  But  that  is 
precisely  the  point  at  issue  between  us.  A  fluid  is  an  ex- 
ternal active  force.  It  is  handy  for  my  critic,  indeed,  to 
begin  by  establishing  this  axiom.  Xow  (he  says),  there  is 
no  fluid,  or  analogous  physical  agent,  in  the  case  of  the 
tables ;  therefore  there  is  no  effect  produced. 

The  learned  gentlemen,  Earaday,  Babinet,  and  others,  do 
not  limit  themselves  to  objections  derived  from  nascent  or 
unconscious  movements,  small  causes  producing  great  effects. 
They  have  still  another  method  of  proceeding.  If  an  ex- 
periment has  succeeded  it  has  no  longer  any  value.  Oh, 
if  one  could  succeed  in  performing  such  another  experiment, 
well  and  good !  But  this  would  not  hinder  the  new  experi- 
ment from  becoming  insignificant  in  its  turn  and  giving 
place  to  a  new  desideratum.  The  phrasing  runs  somewhat 
in  this  way: 

"  You  are  doing  such  and  such  a  thing.  Very  well ;  but 
now  let  us  see  you  do  a  different  thing.  You  are  employ- 
ing such  or  such  a  method;  be  pleased  to  be  contented  with 
those  which  we  prescribe  you.  To  succeed  in  your  way  is 
not  enough;  you  must  succeed  in  ours.  Your  way  is  not 
scientific;  it  runs  contrary  to  the  traditions.  We  shut  the 
door  in  the  face  of  facts  if  they  do  not  come  in  the  regula- 
tion claw-hammer  coat  of  full  dress.  We  shall  pay  no 
attention  to  your  experiments  if  our  experimental  apparatus 
does  not  figure  in  them." 

Strange  way  of  verifying  and  establishing  the  results  of 
experiments !  You  begin  by  changing  the  conditions  un- 
der which  they  are  produced.  You  might  as  well  say  to  the 
man  who  has  seen  the  harvesting  of  barley  in  Upper  Egypt 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  GASPARII^  263 

in  January,  ^'  I  will  believe  it  when  I  see  it  done  before  my 
eyes  in  Bourgogne/'  One  can  understand,  of  course,  how  an 
unreasonable  and  troublesome  fastidiousness  might  be  shown 
regarding  travellers'  tales.  But  scientific  experiments  are 
of  another  character.  In  the  presence  of  facts  so  evident, 
it  is  almost  incredible  that  they  wish  to  impose  upon  us 
instruments,  needles,  and  mechanical  devices.  The  idea 
of  introducing  hecauses  and  therefores  into  an  investiga- 
tion in  which  the  real  nature  of  the  acting  force  is  a  mys- 
tery to  all  the  world! 

Polemical  essays  are  not  scientific  studies.  In  general, 
they  are  the  direct  opposite.  When  persons  who  have  seen 
nothing,  who  have  not  devoted  any  considerable  portion  of 
their  energy  and  time  to  experimentation,  who  have  per- 
haps been  present  only  at  some  ridiculous  rotations  of 
centre-tables,  take  their  pen  in  hand  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
posing theories  or  giving  lofty  reprimands  to  experimenters, 
I  do  not  look  at  them  in  the  light  of  scientific  students. 

I  am  convinced  that  a  man  never  really  studies  that  which 
he  declares  a  'priori  to  have  no  sense  in  it.  If  attacks  are 
studies,  there  is  no  lack  of  them,  and  (I  may  add)  never 
will  be.  At  the  time  when  the  Academy  of  Medicine  buried 
the  report  of  M.  Husson  and  published  what  everybody  in 
Europe  persisted  in  calling  a  refusal  to  examine,  there  was 
issued  every  morning  a  paper  against  magnetism;  every 
morning  some  new  waiter  vociferated  that  the  partisans  of 
magnetism  were  imbeciles,  and  proposed  an  explanatory 
system  of  his  own.  If  you  call  that  making  a  study,  then 
I  grant  that  they  have  studied  table-turnings,  for  there 
certainly  has  been  no  dearth  of  insults  and  of  theories  about 
these  phenomena.  They  have  received  every  attention,  ex- 
cept that  no  one  was  willing  to  inspect,  experiment,  listen, 
and  read. 

Twice,  a  month  apart,  the  Institute  has  announced  (with- 
out protest  from  anybody  whatever)  to  the  students  of  table- 
turnings  that  it  was  shelving  papers  relating  to  that  topic; 
that  it  was  not  obliged  to  occupy  itself  with  nonsense ;  that 
there  was  a  place  in  its  archives  for  lucubrations  of  that 
kind;  namely,  the  place  to  which  were  consigned  papers  on 
perpetual  motion. 


264  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Oh,  Moliere !  why  are  you  not  present  with  us  ?  But,  in 
reality,  you  are  here.  Your  genius  has  limned  with 
ineffaceable  lines  that  everlasting  disease  of  venerable  big- 
wigs and  mouldy  specialists, —  disdain  of  the  laity,  respect 
for  their  fellow-members,  idolatry  of  the  past.  A  most  sin- 
gular deformity,  this !  And  it  appears  in  all  ages,  in  vari- 
ous disguises,  in  the  midst  of  all  branches  of  human  activ- 
ity, now  in  the  name  of  religion,  now  in  that  of  medicine, 
and  again  in  the  name  of  science  or  of  art.  Yes,  even  sur- 
viving the  wreck  of  revolutions  which  spare  nothing,  ap- 
pearing even  within  the  walls  of  learned  academies  the 
members  of  which  write  for  the  furtherance  of  the  great 
movements  of  modern  progress,  one  thing  remains, —  the 
spirit  of  partisanship,  of  cliques,  the  spirit  of  tradition,  the 
superstitious  regard  for  forms. 

Really,  it  would  seem  as  if  people  must  be  still  taking 
Bible  oaths  like  those  in  the  baccalaureate  ceremony  at  the 
end  of  Moliere's  Malade  Imaginaire.  M.  Foucault  is  fond 
of  this  scene,  and  will  therefore  not  take  it  ill  if  I  recall  to 
his  mind  a  couple  of  stanzas : 

Essere  in  omnibus 

C  onsultationibus 
Ancieni  aviso, 

Aut  bono, 
Aut  mauvaiso. 

—  JUEO ! 

De  non  jamais  te  ser'vire 
De  remediis  alcunis 
Quam  de  ceux  soulement  dodce  facuUatis, 
Maladus  dut-il  crevare, 
Et  mori  de  suo  malo. 

—  JUKO ! * 

•  The  long  scene  from  which  this  is  taken  in  Moliere  is  so  full  of 
Italian,  Old  French,  and  dog  Latin,  that  it  has  not  been  translated  by 
Van  Laun.  All  but  the  last  word  [juro)  of  each  stanza  is  spoken  by 
the  big-wigs  in  this  mock  examination  of  a  baccalaureate  medical  stu- 
dent; that  word  is  his: 

"  Do  you  swear  that  in  all  consultations  you  will  be  of  the  ancient 
opinion,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad?" — "I  swear  it." — "To  never  make 


I 


EXPERIME:N'TS  of  GASPAR,m  265 

If  you  don't  call  that  a  refusal  to  examine,  I  don't  know 
what  the  words  mean  in  good  French. 

With  such  ingenious  candor  and  with  such  authority  did 
the  Count  Agenor  de  Gasparin  express  himself  in  the  year 
1854.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  experiments  made  known  in 
this  volume  furnish  abundant  evidence  that  he  is  right. 

Yet  I  have  still  friends,  at  the  Institute,  who  smile  with 
the  utmost  scorn  when  I  ask  their  opinion  on  the  phenomena 
of  the  levitation  of  tables,  the  movement  of  objects  without 
perceptible  cause,  unexplained  noises  in  haunted  houses, 
communication  of  thought  at  a  distance,  premonitory  dreams, 
and  apparitions  of  the  dying.  Although  these  unexplained 
phenomena  have  undeniably  been  proved  to  be  facts  of  oc- 
currence, those  learned  friends  of  mine  remain  convinced 
that  "  such  things  as  that  are  impossible." 

use  of  any  remedies  except  those  of  the  learned  faculty  of  medicine, 
even  should  the  patient  burst  and  die  of  his  disease?  " — "  I  swear  it." — 
Trans. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  KESEAKCIIES   OF   PROFESSOR   THUEY 

The  insufficient  explanations  of  Chevreul  and  of  Faraday, 
the  scientific  negations  of  Babinet,  the  conscientious  experi- 
ments of  the  Count  de  Gasparin  had  led  several  scientists  to 
study  the  question  from  the  purely  scientific  point  of  view. 
Among  them  was  a  highly-gifted  savant  whom  I  visited  at 
Geneva, —  M.  Marc  Thury,  professor  of  natural  history  and 
of  astronomy  in  the  Academy  of  that  city.  We  are  in- 
debted to  him  for  a  remarkable  and  little  known  monograph,* 
which  it  is  my  duty  to  condense  for  this  volume. 

When  we  were  in  the  presence  of  new  phenomena  (writes 
Thury)  there  was  only  one  alternative: 

First,  either  to  reject,  in  the  name  of  common  sense  and 
of  the  results  acquired  by  science,  all  the  pretended  phe- 
nomena of  tables  as  so  many  childish  sports  unworthy  of 
taking  up  the  time  of  the  triie  scientist  or  scholar,  since,  on 
the  very  face  of  it,  their  absurdity  is  evident;  in  short,  to 
let  the  matter  drop  by  refusing  to  give  it  serious  attention. 

Or,  second,  to  make  a  determined  examination  of  it  at 
whatever  cost,  to  study  the  fact  in  its  details  in  order 
to  lay  fully  open  all  the  sources  of  illusion  by  which  the 
public  is  duped,  separate  the  true  from  the  false,  and  throw 
a  strong  light  on  all  aspects  of  the  phenomenon,  physical, 
physiological,  and  psychological,  in  order  that  the  matter 
may  be  so  superabundantly  clear  and  evident  that  no  fur- 
ther excuse  for  doubt  may  remain. 

* "  Les  Tables  tonrnantes,"  considerds  au  point  de  vue  de  la  ques- 
tion de  physique  gcndrale  qui  s'y  rattache.     Oen^ve,  1855. 

266 


i| 


EESEAE.CHES  OF  PROFESSOE  THURY     26Y 

Superfluous  to  say,  the  last  method  is  the  one  adopted  by 
Thury  (as  it  was  by  Gasparin).  He  considers  it  to  be  the 
only  suitable,  efficient,  and  legitimate  method. 

Darkness  saps  the  strength  of  science.  Its  strongest  hold 
lies  in  bringing  everything  out  into  the  full  light  of  day. 
Here,  then,  lies  the  question:  In  these  curious  phenomena 
of  the  tables,  is  the  explanation  so  clear  that  you  can  lay 
a  finger  on  the  causes  of  illusion  and  clearly  show  that 
there  is  in  them  no  new  and  unkno^vn  element  at  work? 

i 

I  do  not  think  (replies  the  Genevan  professor)  that  we 
have  attained  to  that  degree  of  evidence.  I  wish  only  one 
proof,  the  explanation  of  what  has  already  been  attempted. 

If,  then,  it  is  well  established  that  the  common  explana- 
tion is  not  self-evident,  in  the  eyes  of  all  intelligent  and 
sensible  men,  there  remains  a  task  to  do,  a  duty  owed  to 
science, —  that  of  tln-owing  full  light  upon  the  phenomenon 
in  question ;  and  this  task  cannot  be  exchanged  for  the  easier 
one  of  treating  with  irony  or  disdain  those  who  have  gone 
,  astray  in  the  path  that  Science  refused  to  illuminate. 

The  savants  are,  however,  excusable  for  not  going  too  quick 
(let  us  admit  with  Thury). 

What!  a  perturbative  force  lurking,  by  the  hypothesis,  in 
the  human  organism  sufficiently  powerful  to  lift  tables,  and 
"which  yet  had  never  produced  the  slightest  derangement  in 
the  thousands  of  experiments  that  physicists  are  daily  mak- 
ing in  their  laboratories !  Their  balances,  responsive  to  the 
weight  of  a  tenth  of  a  milligram,  their  pendulums  whose  os- 
cillations take  place  with  mathematical  regularity,  had  never 
felt  the  slightest  disturbing  effect  of  these  forces,  whose 
source  is  there  present  wherever  there  is  a  man  and  a  voli- 
tion !  'Now,  it  is  the  ardent  wish  of  the  physicist  that  the 
experiment  shall  always  exactly  tally  the  forecasts  of  theory. 
Must  he  then  admit  an  unkno"\vn  disturbing  force  ? 

And,  even  without  going  outside  of  the  limits  of  the  hu- 


268  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

man  organism,  think,  if  the  organism  is  unable  to  move  the 
smallest  part  of  itself  when  the  part  is  deprived  of  muscles 
and  nerves,  or,  when  a  single  hair  of  our  head  is  absolutely- 
withdrawn  from  the  influence  of  the  will  —  think,  I  saj,  how 
much  less  (and  with  how  much  stronger  reason)  that  nerv- 
ous organism  of  ours  would  seem  to  be  able  to  move  inert 
bodies  residing  outside  the  limits  of  our  ovm  frames  I 

But,  if  there  is  a  profound  improbability  in  the  thing, 
still,  we  cannot  say  that  it  is  impossible.  Xo  one  can  show 
a  priori  the  impossibility  of  the  phenomena  described,  as 
they  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of  perpetual  motion  or 
the  squaring  of  the  circle.  Consequently,  no  one  has  the 
right  to  treat  as  absurd  the  evidences  which  tend  to  confirm 
the  experiments.  Provided  these  evidences  are  furnished  by 
judicious  and  truthful  men,  then  they  are  worth  the  trouble 
of  examination.  If  this  logical  course  had  been  followed  — 
the  only  true  and  equitable  one, —  the  work  would  now  have 
been  done,  and  the  learned  men  would  have  the  glory  thereof. 

Thury  begins  by  examining  the  experiments  of  Count  de 
Gasparin  at  Yalleyres. 

The  experiments  of  Yalleyres  (he  writes)  tend  to  estab- 
lish the  two  following  principles : 

1.  The  will,  in  a  certain  condition  of  the  human  organ- 
ism, can  act,  from  a  distance,  upon  inert  bodies,  and  by  an 
agency  different  from  that  of  muscular  action. 

2.  Under  the  same  conditions,  thought  can  be  communi- 
cated directly,  though  unconsciously,  from  one  individual 
to  another. 

As  long  as  we  were  ignorant  of  any  other  facts  than  those 
resulting  from  a  movement  effected  by  contact  with  the  fin- 
gers of  the  hand,  in  a  way  in  which  the  mechanical  action 
of  the  fingers  became  possible,  the  results  of  the  experiments 
upon  the  table  were  always  of  difficult  and  doubtful  inter- . 
pretation.  Those  results  had  to  be  necessarily  based  upon 
an  estimate  of  the  mechanical  force  exerted  by  the  hands 


EESEAKCHES  OF  PROFESSOE  THURY     269 

compared  with  the  strength  of  the  resistance  to  be  over- 
come. But  the  mechanical  force  of  the  hands  is  difficult 
to  measure  exactly,  under  the  conditions  necessary  to  pro- 

tduce  the  phenomena. 
Yet  over  and  above  that  plan  of  work  there  remained  two 
:  methods  of  operation  to  employ. 
a.  So  to  dispose  the  apparatus  employed  that  the  move- 
ment to  be  produced  shall  be  one  that  the  mechanical  action 
of  the  fingers  could  not  compass. 

h.  To  set  up  movements  at  a  distance  without  any  kind 
of  contact. 

The  following  were  our  first  experiments : 
A.  Mechanical  action  rendered  impossible.  The  first  ex- 
periment attempted  along  this  line  gave  wholly  negative 
results.  We  suspended  a  table  by  a  cord  that  passed  over 
two  pulleys  fixed  in  the  ceiling  and  had  a  counter-weight 
attached  to  the  free  end.  It  was  easy,  by  regulating  this 
counterpoise,  to  balance  in  the  air  either  the  total  weight 
of  the  table  or  only  a  fraction,  more  or  less  great,  thereof. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  table  hung  almost  in  equilibrium 

with  the  weight,  one  only  of  its  three  legs  touching  the  fioor. 

;  The   operators   placed   their   hands   upon   the   top    surface. 

.;'  We  acted  at  first  in  a  circular  direction,  a  disposition  of  the 

force  the  efficacy  of  which  had  been  established  by  previous 

experiments.     We  then  tried  in  vain  to  lift  the  table  by 

detaching  it  from  the  floor.     Xo  positive  result  was  obtained. 

We  had  already  (during  the  previous  year)  had  a  table 

suspended  to  a  dynamometer,  and  the  efforts  of  four  mes- 

merizers  were  powerless  to  relieve  the  dynamometer  of  an 

^  appreciable  fraction  of  the  weight  of  the  table. 

I       But  the  conditions  necessary  for  the  production  of  the 

'  phenomena   were   still   unkno^Ti   to   us,    and,   consequently, 

when  the  experiments  tried  led  to  negative  results,  we  had  to 

try  others,  without  pressing  too  hastily  for  inferences  and 

conclusions.     It  was  thus  that  we  secured  the  results  which 

I  am  going  to  describe. 

Experiment  with  the  Swinging  Table, —  We  needed  a 
piece  of  apparatus  of  such  a  kind  that  the  mechanical  action 
of  the  fingers  would  be  rendered  impossible.  Eor  this  pur- 
pose we  had  a  table  made  with  a  top  about  33  inches  in 


270  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

diameter,  and  a  central  trifurcated  leg  underneath.  This 
table  bore  a  close  resemblance  to  the  one  ^vhich  had  served 
our  purposes  up  to  that  time,  and  could  turn  like  its  prede- 
cessor. Still,  the  new  table  was  capable  of  being  trans- 
formed in  a  moment  into  a  mechanism  such  as  I  shall  now 
describe. 

The  summit  of  the  tripod  becomes  the  fulcrum  of  a  lever 
of  the  first  order  which  is  able  to  balance  freely  in  a  vertical 
plane.  This  lever,  whose  two  arms  are  equal  to  each  other 
and  to  the  radius  of  the  table  bears  at  one  of  its  extremities 
the  table-top,  held  by  the  edge,  and,  toward  the  other  ex- 
tremity, a  counterpoise  which  just  balances  the  weight  of 
the  table,  but  which  can  be  modified  at  will.  To  the  under 
side  of  the  table-top  is  fastened  a  leg  resting  on  the  floor. 

After  the  necessary  preliminary  rotations,  the  table  is 
harnessed  up  in  its  second  form.  Equilibrium  is  first  se- 
cured, then  3-5  of  a  pound  is  taken  from  the  counterpoise. 
The  force  required  to  lift  the  top  by  its  centre  is  then  4 
ounces,  and  previous  experiments  have  proved  that  the  ad- 
herence of  the  fingers  of  the  operators  (the  top  was  polished, 
and  not  varnished),  together  with  the  possible  effects  of 
elasticity,  form  a  total  lower  than  that  figure.  Yet  the 
top  is  lifted  by  the  action  of  the  fingers  placed  lightly  on 
its  upper  surface,  at  a  certain  distance  from  the  edge. 
Then  the  counterpoise  is  diminished ;  the  mechanical  diffi- 
culty of  lifting  is  augmented,  yet  still  it  takes  place.  The 
weight  is  again  diminished,  and  more  and  more,  up  to  the 
limit  of  the  apparatus.  The  force  necessary  to  lift  the 
top  is  then  8  1-5  pounds,  and  the  counterpoise  has  been  re- 
lieved of  24  pounds;  yet  the  levitation  is  easily  accom- 
plished. The  number  of  the  operators  is  gradually  lessened 
from  eleven  to  six.  The  difficulty  goes  on  increasing,  yet 
six  operators  still  suffice;  but  five  are  not  enough.  Six 
operators  lift  9  1-3  pounds, —  an  average  for  each  man  of 
about  1^2  pounds. 

We  now  possess,  in  the  apparatus  just  described,  a  gauge 
or  instrument  of  measurement. 

B.  The  following  movements  were  produced  without  con- 
tact: 

The  table  on  which  were  made  the  trials  I  witnessed  has 


KESEAECHES  OF  PHOFESSOR  THUEY     271 

i  diameter  of  32  inches  and  weighs  31  pounds.  An  aver- 
ige  tangential  force  of  4  2-5  pounds,  which  may  be  raised 
;o  6  3-5  pounds,  according  to  the  gi^eater  or  less  inequalities 
Df  the  floor,  applied  to  the  edge  of  the  table,  is  necessary  to 
rive  to  it  a  movement  of  rotation.  Ten  is  usually  the  num- 
oer  of  persons  who  operate  about  this  table. 

In  order  to  assure  ourselves  of  the  absence  of  all  con- 
tact, we  placed  our  eye  on  a  level  with  the  table  in  such  a 
way  as  to  see  light  between  our  fingers  and  the  surface  of 
the  table,  the  fingers  themselves  remaining  a  little  less  than 
an  inch  above  the  top.  Usually,  two  persons  would  be  ob- 
serving at  once.  For  instance,  M.  Edmond  Boissier  was 
observing  the  legs  of  the  table,  while  I  was  watching  the 
top.  Then  we  exchanged  roles.  Sometimes  two  persons 
took  places  at  the  extremities  of  one  and  the  same  diameter, 
the  one  opposite  the  other,  for  the  purpose  of  watching  the 
top  of  the  table.  Several  times  we  saw  it  move,  although 
we  could  not  detect  the  slightest  touch  by  the  fingers.  Ac- 
cording to  my  calculations,  it  would  require  the  contact  of 
at  least  100  fingers,  or  the  light  pressure  of  thirty,  acting 
voluntarily  and  fraudulently,  to  explain  in  terms  of  mechan- 
ics the  movements  we  observed. 

Much  more  frequently  still  we  obtained  balancings  with- 
out contact,  balancings  which  sometimes  went  so  far  as  to 
tip  the  table  entirely  over.  To  explain  in  terms  of  me- 
chanical movement  the  effects  we  observed,  we  should  have 
to  admit  the  involuntary  contact  of  84  fingers,  or  the  light 
pressure  of  25,  or  two  hands  acting  with  intent  to  deceive. 
But  these  suppositions,  also,  are  not  at  all  admissible. 

Nevertheless,  we  always  felt  that  someone  might  pre- 
sent the  objection  that  it  was  difficult  to  observe  these  opera- 
tions with  precision,  and  we  were  constantly  urging  M. 
Gasparin  to  convince  the  doubters  and  sceptics  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  non-contact  of  the  fingers  by  means  of  some 
mechanical  device.  Out  of  this  arose  the  last  experiment 
made  at  that  time,  and  the  most  conclusive  of  all.  A  light 
film  of  flour  was  almost  instantaneously  spread  over  the 
table  by-  means  of  a  sulphur  bellows  such  as  is  used  in 
vineyards.  The  movement  of  the  chain  of  hands  above  the 
table  set  it  whirlino-.     Then  the  film  of  flour  was  examined 


272  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

and  found  to  be  inviolate  from  tlie  touch  of  hands.     Several 
repetitions  on  different  days  always  gave  the  same  results. 

Such  are  the  principal  facts  which  establish  the  reality 
of  the  phenomenon.  Thury  next  takes  up  the  more  difficult 
investigation  of  courses. 

The  Seat  of  the  Force, —  It  is  possible  that  the  force 
which  produces  the  phenomena  is  a  general  telluric  force 
which  is  merely  transmitted  by  the  operators  or  set  in  action 
by  them;  or,  possibly,  the  force  resides  in  the  operators 
themselves. 

To  decide  this  question,  we  had  a  large  movable  plat- 
form constructed  which  revolved  on  a  perfectly  vertical  axis. 
Kear  the  outer  periphery  of  the  platform  stood  four  chairs, 
and  there  was  a  table  at  the  centre.  Four  operators,  ex- 
perts in  nervo-magnetic  action,  took  their  places  on  the 
chairs,  and,  placing  their  hands  on  the  table  in  the  centre, 
tried  to  give  it  circular  movement  by  non-mechanical  power. 
In  fact,  the  table  soon  began  to  move.  Then  it  was  stopped 
and  fastened  to  the  platform  by  means  of  three  screws. 
The  effort  exerted  upon  this  table  by  the  four  magnetizers 
was  such  that,  at  the  end  of  three-quarters  of  an  hour  of 
experimentation,  the  central  supporting  leg  >was  broken. 
Yet  the  movable  platform  did  not  turn.  The  tangential 
force  required  to  mechanically  move  the  empty  platform  was 
only  a  few  grams;  loaded  with  the  four  operators,  250 
grams  was  necessary,  applied  about  28  inches  from  the 
centre.  This  figure  would  have  been  much  less  if  it  had 
been  possible  to  distribute  the  weight  of  the  operators  uni- 
formly. 

The  result  of  this  experiment  (of  June  4,  1853)  showed 
that  the  force  which  tends  to  make  the  table  turn  is  in 
the  individuals  and  not  in  the  ground.  For  the  force  ex- 
erted upon  the  table  tends  to  draw  along  the  platform  with 
it.  If,  then,  the  platform  remains  motionless,  it  must  be 
that  an  equal  and  contrary  force  is  exerted  by  the  ^operators. 
It  is  tliorefore  in  them  that  the  base  of  the  seat  of  the 
force  resides.     If,  on  the  contrar)^,  this  force  had  emanated, 


EESEARCHES  OF  PEOFESSOR  THUEY     2Y3 

wholly  or  in  large  part,  from  the  ground,  if  it  had  been  a 
force  directly  telluric,  the  platform  would  have  turned,  the 
effort  which  the  table  exerted  upon  it  being  no  longer  coun- 
terbalanced by  an  equal  reaction  proceeding  from  the  indi- 
viduals. 

Conditions  of  the  Production  and  Action  of  the  Force. — 
I  have  said  that  the  conditions  for  the  production  of  the 
force  are  little  known.  In  the  absence  of  precise  laws,  I 
shall  present  what  has  been  verified  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  in  the  case  of  the  three  following  points : 

a.  Conditions  of  action  relative  to  the  operators. 

b.  Conditions  relative  to  the  objects  to  be  moved. 

c.  Conditions  relative  to  the  mode  of  action  of  the  oper- 
ators upon  the  objects  to  be  moved. 

The  Will.  The  first  and  the  most  indispensable  condi- 
|l  tion,  according  to  M.  Gasparin,  is  the  wdll  of  the  operator. 
"Without  the  will,"  he  says,  ''we  obtain  nothing;  we  might 
sit  there  in  chain  twenty-four  hours  in  succession  without 
getting  the  slightest  movement."  Farther  on,  the  author 
speaks,  it  is  true,  of  unexpected  movements  different  from 
those  which  the  will  prescribes;  but  it  is  evident  that  he  is 
referring  to  a  necessary  combination  of  prescribed  move- 
ments and  external  resistances,  the  effective  movements  be- 
ing the  resultant  of  those  that  have  been  willed  and  of  forces 
of  resistance  developed  in  external  objects.  In  short,  the 
will  is  always  the  prime  mover  and  originator. 

iJ^othing,  it  is  true,  in  the  experiments  at  Valleyres  gave 
any  authority  for  believing  that  it  could  be  otherwise  than 
this.  But  it  is  also  certain  that  this  purely  negative  result, 
or  provisional  generalization,  deduced  from  a  limited  num- 
ber of  experiments, —  cannot  invalidate  the  results  of  ex- 
periments inconsistent  wdth  those,  in  case  such  should  exist. 
In  other  w^ords,  the  will  may  ordinarily  be  necessary,  with- 
out always  being  so.  Similarly,  contact  is  ordinarily  neces- 
sary, and  always  has  been  so  wdth  a  large  number  of  opera- 
tors, without,  however,  giving  them  the  right  to  conclude 
that  contact  is  the  indispensable  condition  of  the  phenome- 
non, and  that  the  different  results  obtained  at  Valleyres 
w^ere  only  illusions  or  error. 

Since  we  are  dealing  here  with  a  point  of  capital  im- 


274  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EORCES 

portance,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  stating  with  some  detail 
circumstances  which  seem  opposed  to  the  thesis  maintained 
by  M.  Gasparin.  These  facts,  or  data,  have  as  guarantee 
the  testimony  of  a  man  whom  I  should  like  to  be  able  to 
name,  because  his  scientific  culture  and  his  character  are 
known  of  all  men.  It  was  in  his  house  and  under  his  eyes 
that  the  events  took  place  which  I  am  going  to  relate. 

At  the  time  when  everyone  was  amusing  himself  with 
making  tables  turn  and  speak,  or  in  directing  the  motions  of 
lead-pencils,  fixed  in  movable  sockets,  over  sheets  of  paper, 
the  children  of  the  house  amused  themselves  several  times 
with  this  sport.  At  first,  the  responses  obtained  were  such 
that  you  could  see  in  them  a  reflex  of  the  unconscious  thought 
of  the  operators,  a  ^'  dream  of  waking  performers."  Soon, 
however,  the  character  of  the  replies  seemed  to  change. 
It  seemed  as  if  what  they  revealed  could  hardly  have  ema- 
nated from  the  mind  of  the  young  interrogators.  Finally, 
there  was  such  an  opposition  to  the  commands  given  that  M. 
'N.,  uncertain  as  to  the  true  nature  of  these  manifestations 
in  which  a  will  different  from  the  human  will  seemed  to 
appear,  forbade  their  being  called  forth  again.  From  that 
time  forth,  sockets  and  table  rested  undisturbed. 

A  week  had  scarcely  rolled  by,  after  the  events  just  nar- 
rated, when  a  child  of  the  family,  he  who  had  formerly 
succeeded  best  in  the  table  experiments,  became  the  actor, 
or  the  instrument,  in  strange  phenomena.  The  boy  was  re- 
ceiving a  piano-lesson,  when  a  low  noise  sounded  in  the 
instrument,  and  it  was  shaken  and  displaced  in  such  a  way 
that  pupil  and  teacher  closed  it  in  haste  and  left  the  room. 
On  the  next  day,  M.  'N.,  who  had  been  informed  of  what 
had  happened,  was  present  at  the  lesson,  given  at  the  same 
time, —  namely,  when  the  dusk  was  coming  on.  At  the  end 
of  five  or  ten  minutes  he  heard  a  noise  in  the  piano  difficult 
to  define,  but  which  was  certainly  the  kind  of  sound  one 
would  expect  a  musical  instrument  to  produce.  There 
was  something  about  it  musical  and  metallic.  Soon  after, 
the  two  front  legs  of  the  piano  (which  weighed  over  six 
hundred  and  sixty  pounds)  were  lifted  up  a  little  from 
the  floor.  M.  N.  went  to  one  end  of  the  instrument  and 
tried  to  lift  it.     At  one  time  it  had  its  ordinary  weight, 


EESEAECHES  OF  PE.0FES50E  THUEY     275 

,  wliich  was  more  than  the  strength  of  M.  J^.  could  manage ; 
at  another,   it  seemed   as   if  it  had  no  longer   any  weight 
at  all,   and  opposed  not  the  least  resistance  to  his  efforts. 
Since  the  interior  noises  were  becoming  more  and  more  vio- 
lent, the  lesson  was  brought  to  a  close,  for  fear  the  instru- 
ment might  suffer  some  damage.     The  lesson  was  changed 
to  the  morning  and  given  in  another  room  situated  on  the 
.  ground   floor.     The   same   phenomena   took   place,    and   the 
f  piano,  which  was  lighter  than  the  one  up-stairs,  was  lifted 
!  up  much  more;  that  is  to  say,  to  a  height  of  several  inches. 
■  M.  'N.  and  a  young  man  nineteen  years  old  tried  leaning 
with  all  their  might  on  the  corners  of  the  piano  which  were 
rising.     Then  one  of  two  things  happened :  either  their  re- 
sistance was  in  vain,  and  the  piano  continued  to  rise,  or  else 
the  music-stool  on  which  the  child  sat  moved  rapidly  hack 
as  if  pushed  or  jerked. 

If  occurrences  like  that  had  only  taken  place  once  we 
might  think  that  the  child  or  the  persons  present  were 
laboring  under  some  illusion.  But  they  were  repeated  a 
great  number  of  times,  for  a  fortnight,  in  the  presence  of 
I  different  witnesses.  Then,  one  day,  a  violent  manifesta- 
I  tion  took  place,  and  thenceforth  no  unusual  event  occurred 
in  the  house.  At  first,  it  was  in  the  morning  and  in  the 
evening  that  these  perturbations  manifested  themselves; 
then,  invariably  at  any  and  all  hours,  they  occurred  every 
time  the  child  took  his  seat  at  the  piano,  after  five  or  ten 
minutes  of  playing.  The  phenomena  happened  only  with 
this  boy,  although  there  were  others  present  (musicians)  ; 
and  it  made  no  difference  which  of  the  pianos  in  the  house 
he  used. 

I  saw  these  instruments.  The  smaller,  on  the  ground 
floor,  is  a  rectangular  horizontal  piano.  According  to  my 
calculations,  a  force  of  about  165  pounds  applied  to  the  edge 
of  the  case,  beneath  the  key-board,  is  necessary  to  lift  this 
piano  as  it  was  lifted  by  the  unknown  force.  The  instru- 
ment in  the  first  story  of  the  house  is  a  heavy  Erard  piano, 
weighing,  with  the  packing-box  in  which  it  was  sent,  812 
pounds,  as  stated  in  the  way-bill,  which  I  myself  saw.  Ac- 
cording to  my  approximate  calculations  a  pressure  of  440 


276  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

pounds  is  required  to  lift  this  piano,  under  the  same  condi- 
tions as  the  first  was  lifted. 

I  do  not  think  that  anyone  will  be  tempted  to  attribute 
to  the  direct  muscular  effort  of  a  child  eleven  years  old  the 
lifting  up  a  weight  of  440  pounds.*  A  lady  who  had  at- 
tributed the  effect  produced  to  the  action  of  the  knees  passed 
her  own  hand  between  the  edge  of  the  piano  and  the  knees 
of  the  child,  and  was  thus  able  to  convince  herself  that  her 
explanation  had  no  foundation  in  fact.  Even  when  the 
child  got  upon  his  knees  upon  the  piano-stool  to  play,  he 
did  not  find  that  the  perturbations  he  dreaded  ceased  any 
the  more. 

These  authenticated  facts  of  Professor  Thury  are  at  once 
precise  and  formidable.  What!  two  pianos  rise  from  the 
floor  and  jump  about !  What  do  the  physicists,  the  chem- 
ists, the  learned  pedants  in  office  need,  then,  to  arouse  them 
from  their  torpor  and  make  them  shake  their  ears  and  open 
their  eyes  ?  What  shall  be  done  to  remove  their  noble  and 
Pharisaical  indolence  ? 

But,  happen  what  may,  no  one  is  occupying  himself  with 
the  fascinating  problem  as  stated,  except  scattered  investi- 
gators who  are  freed  from  the  fear  of  ridicule  and 
are  aware  of  the  exact  value  of  the  human  race,  in  large  and 
small,  and  the  worth  of  its  judgments. 

M.  Thury  next  discusses  the  exj)lanation  based  on  "  the 
will." 

Did  this  boy  (he  says)  will  what  took  place,  as  the  theory 
of  M.   de  Gasparin  would  require  us  to  admit?     Accord- 

•  The  dynamic  force  necessary  to  produce  this  uplift,  if  we  admit 
that  it  was  developed  and  accumulated  during  the  five  or  ten  minutes 
of  playing  that  preceded  the  phenomenon,  would  not,  on  the  other  hand, 
be  beyond  the  strength  of  the  child;  it  would  remain  even  much  be- 
neath the  limit  of  his  powers.  In  general,  the  force  expended,  in  these 
phenomena  of  tlie  tables,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  degree  of  fatigue 
experienced  by  the  operators,  much  surpasses  what  would  be  required 
to  produce  the  same  effects  mechanically.  There  is,  therefore,  in  this 
respect,  no  reason  for  admitting  the  intervention  of  a  force  foreign  to 
the  boy's  own  nature. —  {Thury.) 


EESEAECHES  OF  PEOFESSOE  THUEY     277 

ing  to  the  boy's  testimony,  whicli  we  believe  to  be  wholly 
true,  he  did  not  will  it;  he  seemed  to  be  visibly  annoyed 
by  what  occurred;  it  disturbed  his  custom  of  industriously 
practicing  his  lesson  and  offended  his  taste  for  regularity 
and  order,  a  thing  well  known  to  his  intimates.  My  per- 
sonal conviction  is  that  we  positively  cannot  admit,  in  the 
case  of  this  lad,  a  conscious  will,  a  settled  design,  to  produce 
these  strange  occurrences.  But  it  is  known  that  sometimes 
we  have  a  double  personality,  and  one  of  them  converses  with 
the  other  (as  in  dreams)  ;  that  our  nature  then  uncon- 
sciously desires  what  it  does  not  will,  and  that  between  will 
and  desire  there  is  only  a  difference  in  degree  rather  than 
in  kind.  It  would  be  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  explana- 
tions of  this  kind, —  too  subtle,  perhaps, —  in  order  to 
square  these  piano-facts  with  the  theory  of  M.  Gasparin; 
and  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  modify  and  enlarge  the 
facts  if  you  admit  that  even  unconscious  desire  suffices,  in 
the  absence  of  the  expressed  will.  There  is,  then,  reason 
for  doubt  on  this  essential  point.  That  is  the  sole  deduction 
that  I  wish  to  draw  from  the  events  I  have  related. 

This  levitation,  equivalent  to  an  effort  exerted  of  440 
pounds,  has  its  scientific  value.  But  how  could  the  will, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  lift  a  piece  of  furniture  of  that 
weight  ?  By  an  unknown  force  which  we  are  obliged  to 
recognize. 

Preliminary  Action. —  Power  is  developed  by  action. 
The  rotations  prepare  for  the  tippings  and  the  levitations. 
The  rotations  and  the  tippings,  with  contact,  seem  to  de- 
velop the  force  necessary  to  produce  the  rotations  and  tip- 
pings without  contact.  In  their  turn,  the  rotations  and 
the  tippings  without  contact  prepare  for  the  production  of 
true  levitations,  such  as  those  of  the  swinging  table;  and 
the  persons  who  have  this  latent  force  awaked  in  them  are 
better  fitted  to  appeal  to  it  a  second  time. 

There  is,  then,  a  gradual  preparation  required,  at  least 
for  the  majority  of  operators.  Does  this  preparation  con- 
sist in  a  modification  that  takes  place  in  the  operator,  or  in 


278  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  inert  body  on  which  he  acts,  or  in  both?  In  order  to 
resolve  this  problem,  experimenters  who  had  been  practicing 
at  one  table  went  over  to  another,  operating  on  which  they 
found  their  full  power  unabated.  The  preparation  there- 
fore consists  in  a  modification  that  takes  place  in  the  indi- 
viduals, and  not  in  the  inert  body.*  This  modification  oc- 
curring in  individuals  is  dissipated  rather  rapidly,  espe- 
cially when  the  chain  of  experimenters  is  broken. 

Inner  Development  of  the  Operators. —  It  is  only  after 
a  certain  period  of  waiting  that  the  operators,  who  have  not 
so  far  acted,  cause  even  the  easiest  movement, —  that 
of  rotation  with  contact.  It  is  during  this  time  that  the 
force,  or  the  conditions  determining  the  manifestation  of 
the  force,  develop  themselves.  Erom  that  time  on,  the  de- 
veloped force  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  increase.  That  which 
takes  place,  therefore,  in  this  time  of  waiting,  is  a  very 
important  thing  to  be  considered.  We  already  know  that  it 
is  the  operators  themselves  who  are  modified.  But  what  is 
it  that  takes  place  within  them  ? 

It  must  be  that  a  kind  of  activity  is  set  up  in  the  organ- 
ism, an  activity  which  ordinarily  requires  the  intervention 
of  the  will.  This  activity,  this  work,  is  accompanied  by  a 
certain  fatigue.  The  action  is  not  aroused  in  all  operators 
wdth  equal  ease  and  promptness.  There  are  even  persons 
(the  author  estimates  their  number  at  one  in  ten)  in  whom 
it  appears  that  it  cannot  be  produced  at  all. 

In  the  midst  of  this  great  diversity  of  natural  aptitudes, 
it  is  observed  that  children  "  can  secure  obedience  from  the 
table  just  like  grown  folks."  l^evertheless,  children  do  not 
magnetize.  Thus,  although  several  facts  seem  to  show  that 
magnetizers  (or  mesmerizers)  have  frequently  a  strong 
power  over  the  tables,  yet  one  cannot  admit  the  identity  of 
magnetic  power  and  power  over  the  tables;  the  one  is  not 
the  measure  of  the  other.  Only,  the  magnetic  power  would 
constitute  (or  presume)  a  favorable  subjective  condition. 

*  In  the  first  experiments  of  Thury,  eight  persons  remained  an  hour 
and  a  half  standing,  and  then  seated,  around  a  table,  without  obtaining 
the  least  resulting  movement.  Two  or  three  days  after,  on  their  sec- 
ond trial,  the  same  persons,  at  the  end  of  ten  minutes,  made  a  centre- 
table  revolve.  Finally,  on  tlie  4th  of  May,  1853,  at  the  third  or  fourth 
trial,  the  heaviest  tables  began  to  move  almost  immediately. 


EESEAECHES  OF  PROEESSOE  THUEY     279 

A  will  simple  and  strong,  animation,  high  spirits,  the  con- 
centration of  the  thought  upon  the  work  to  do,  good  bodily 
health,  perhaps  the  very  physical  act  of  turning  around  the 
table,  and,  finally,  everything  that  can  contribute  to  unity 
of  will-power  among  the  experimenters, —  all  these  things 
help  to  make  efficacious  the  commands  addressed  to  the 
table  with  force  and  authority. 

The  tables  (says  M.  de  Gasparin)  "  wish  to  be  handled 
gaily,  freely,  with  animation  and  confidence ;  they  must  be 
humored  at  the  start  wdth  amusing  and  easy  exercises.'^ 
The  first  condition  necessary  for  success  with  the  table  is 
good  health  and  the  second,  confidence. 

Among  unfavorable  circumstances,  on  the  other  hand, 
must  be  reckoned  a  state  of  nervous  tension ;  fatigue ;  a  too 
passionate  interest;  a  mind  anxious,  preoccupied  or  dis- 
tracted. 

The  tables  —  M.  de  Gasparin  further  says,  in  his  meta- 
phorical language  — ^^  detest  folks  who  quarrel,  either  as 
their  opponents  or  as  their  friends."  "  As  soon  as  I  took 
too  deep  an  interest,  I  ceased  to  command  obedience."  ^'  If 
it  happened  that  I  desired  success  too  ardently,  and  showed 
impatience  at  delay,  I  no  longer  had  any  power  of  action 
on  the  table."  "  If  the  tables  encounter  preoccupied  minds 
or  nervous  excitement,  they  go  into  a  sulking  mood."  "  If 
you  are  touchy,  over-anxious  .  .  .  you  can't  do  any- 
thing of  any  value."  "  In  the  midst  of  distractions,  chat- 
terings,  pleasantries,  the  operators  infallibly  lose  all  their 
power."     Away  with  salon  experiments ! 

Must  one  have  faith  ?  It  is  not  necessary ;  but  confidence 
in  the  result  predisposes  to  a  larger  endowment  of  power  in 
the  seance  of  the  occasion.  It  does  not  suffice  to  have  faith ; 
there  are  persons  who  have  faith  and  good  will,  yet  with 
whom  power  of  action  is  altogether  wanting. 

Muscular  force  or  nervous  susceptibility  do  not  seem  to 
play  any  role. 

Meteorological  conditions  have  seemed  to  exercise  some 
influence,  probably  by  acting  upon  the  physique  and  the 
spirits  of  the  operators.  Thus  fine  weather,  dry  and  warm 
weather  (but  not  a  suffocating  heat)  act  favorably. 

The  especially  efficacious  influence  of  dry  heat  upon  the 


280  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

surface  of  the  table  *  will  perhaps  receive  a  different  ex- 
planation. 

Unconscious  Muscular  Action,  produced  during  an  espe- 
cially Nervous  Condition. —  So  long  as  only  movements 
with  contact  were  known,  in  which  the  movement  observed 
was  one  of  those  which  muscular  action  might  produce,  ex- 
planations based  on  the  hypothesis  of  unconscious  muscular 
action  were  certainly  sufficient  and  much  more  probable 
than  all  the  other  explanations  which  had  been  up  to  that 
time  proposed. 

From  this  point  of  view  (entirely  physiological)  it  is  set- 
tled that  we  must  distinguish  between  the  effort  which  a 
muscle  exerts  and  the  consciousness  we  have  of  this  effort. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  there  exist  in  the  human  organ- 
ism a  great  number  of  muscles  that  habitually  exert  con- 
siderable effort  without  our  being  in  the  slightest  degree 
aware  of  it.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  muscles  exist 
whose  contractions  are  perceptible  by  us  in  a  certain  state 
of  the  system  and  unperceived  in  another  state.  It  is  there- 
fore conceivable  that  the  muscles  of  our  limbs  might  as 
an  exceptional  thing,  exhibit  the  same  phenomenon.  The 
preparation  for  the  movement  of  the  table,  the  special  kind 
of  reaction  that  takes  place  at  this  interval  of  waiting,  put 
the  nervous  system  into  a  particular  condition  in  which 
certain  muscular  movements  may  take  place  in  an  uncon- 
scious manner. 

But,  evidently,  this  theory  is  not  sufficient  to  account  for 
movements  without  contact,  nor  those  that  take  place  in 
such  a  way  that  muscular  action  could  not  produce  them. 
It  is  therefore  these  two  classes  of  movements  which  must 
serve  as  the  basis  of  new  experiments  and  as  the  founda- 
tion of  a  new  theory. 

How  also  explain  the  very  peculiar  and  truly  inconceiv-' 
able  character  of  the  movements  of  the  table  ?  —  this  start- 
ing to  move,  so  insensible,  so  gentle,  so  different  from  the{ 
abruptness  characteristic  of  the  impetus  given  by  mechan-i 

*  In  the  case  of  difficult  tests,  when  they  took  place  on  cold  days, 
a  warm  spread  was  stretched  over  the  table,  and  removed  at  the  mo- 
ment of  the  experiment.  The  operators  themselves,  before  acting,  held 
their  hands  open  for  a  moment  before  a  stove. 


KESEAECHES  OF  PROFESSOE  THUEY     281 

ical  force;  these  levitations  so  spontaneous,  so  energetic, 
which  leap  up  to  meet  the  hands;  these  dances  and  imita- 
tions of  music  which  jou  would  in  vain  attempt  to  equal 
bj  means  of  the  combined  and  voluntary  action  of  the 
>  operators;  these  little  raps  succeeding  the  loud  ones,  when 
the  command  is  given,  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  which  noth- 
ing can  express.  Several  times  when  someone  asked  a  so- 
called  spirit  his  age,  one  of  the  legs  of  the  centre-table  lifted 
up  and  rapped  1,  2,  3,  etc.  Then  the  movement  was  ac- 
celerated. Finally,  the  three  legs  beat  a  kind  of  drum-roll 
so  rapid  that  it  was  impossible  to  count,  and  which  the 
most  skilful  could  never  succeed  in  imitating.  On  another 
occasion,  under  the  contact  of  hands,  the  table  was  turning 
upon  three  legs,  upon  two,  upon  a  single  one;  and,  in  this 
last  position,  changed  feet,  throwing  its  weight  first  upon 
one  and  then  upon  another  with  great  ease,  and  with  noth- 
ing abrupt  or  jerky  in  its  motions.  Keither  the  experi- 
menters nor  their  most  eminent  opponents  would  ever  be 
able  to  imitate  mechanically  this  dance  of  the  table,  and, 
above  all,  the  whirling  pirouettes  and  changes  of  feet. 

Electricity. —  Many  have  tried  to  explain  the  movements 
of  tables  by  electricity.  Even  supposing  that  they  involve 
the  very  abundant  production  of  this  agent,  no  known  effect 
of  electricity  would  account  for  the  movement  of  the  tables. 
But,  in  fact,  it  is  easy  to  show  that  there  is  no  electricity 
produced ;  for,  when  a  galvanometer  was  interposed  in  the 
chain,  no  deviation  of  the  needle  took  place.  The  elec- 
trometer remains  as  indifferent  to  the  solicitations  of  the 
tables  as  does  the  mariner's  compass. 

Nervo-magnetism. —  There  is  certainly  some  analogy  be- 
tween several  phenomena  of  nervo-magnetism  and  those  of 
the  tables.  Those  passes  which  seem  to  favor  balancing 
without  contact ;  the  motion  imparted  by  the  chain  to  this 
man  whom  they  cause  to  turn  about  (unless,  indeed,  there 
is  in  this  some  effect  of  the  imagination)  ;  finally,  the  power 
that  many  mesmerizers  exert  over  the  tables  —  all  this 
seems  to  indicate  a  kinship  between  the  two  orders  of  phe- 
nomena. But,  since  the  laws  of  nervo-magnetism  are  little 
knovm,  there  is  no  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  this,  and 
it  seems  to  me  preferable,  for  the  present,  to  study  sepa- 


282  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOKCES 

rately  the  phenomena  of  tables,  which  are  better  adapted 
to  the  experiments  of  the  physicist,  and  which,  well  studied, 
will  render  more  service  to  nervo-magnetism  than  it  could 
receive  in  a  long  time  from  this  obscure  branch  of  physi- 
ology. 

Thury  next  touches  upon  M.  de  Gasparin's  theory  of 
fluidic  action.  Being  certain  that  he  accurately  understands 
this  theory,  he  gives  a  resume  of  it  in  the  following  items: 

1.  A  fluid  is  produced  by  the  brain,  and  flows  along  the 
nerves. 

2.  This  fluid  can  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  body ;  it  can 
be  emitted. 

3.  Under  the  influence  of  the  will,  it  can  move  hither 
and  thither. 

4.  This  fluid  acts  upon  inert  bodies;  yet  it  shuns  contact 
with  certain  substances,  such  as  glass. 

5.  It  lifts  the  parts  toward  which  it  moves,  or  in  which  it 
accumulates. 

6.  It  further  acts  upon  inert  bodies  by  attraction  or  by 
repulsion,  with  a  tendency  to  either  join  or  separate  the 
inert  body  and  the  organism. 

7.  It  can  also  determine  interior  movements  in  matter, 
and  give  rise  to  noises. 

8.  This  fluid  is  especially  produced  and  developed  by 
turning,  and  by  the  will,  and  by  the  joining  of  hands  in  a 
certain  manner. 

9.  It  is  communicated  from  one  person  to  another  by 
vicinage  or  by  contact.  Yet  certain  persons  impede  its  com- 
munication. 

10.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  special  movements  of  the 
fluid,  which  are  determined  by  the  will. 

11.  This  fluid  is  probably  identical  with  the  nervous  fluid 
and  with  the  nervo-magnetic  fluid. 

Application. —  Rotation  is  a  resultant  of  the  action  of  the 
fluid  and  of  the  resistances  of  the  wood. 

Tipping  results  from  the  accumulation  of  the  fluid  in  the 
leg  of  the  table  which  is  lifted. 


EESEAE.CHES  OF  PROFESSOR  THURY     283 

The  glass  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  table  stops  the 
movement  because  it  drives  away  the  fluid. 

The  glass  placed  on  one  side  of  the  table  makes  the 
opposite  side  rise  because  the  fluid,  fleeing  from  the  glass, 
accumulates  there. 

Thury  does  not  attempt  the  discussion  of  this  theory.  But 
we  may  repeat  w4th  Gasparin,  "  When  you  shall  have  ex- 
plained to  me  how  I  lift  my  hand,  I  will  explain  to  you  how 
I  cause  the  leg  of  the  table  to  rise." 

The  whole  problem  lies  in  that, —  the  action  of  mind  on 
matter.  We  must  not  dream  that  we  can  give  a  final  solu- 
tion of  it  at  the  present  time.  To  reduce  the  new  facts  to 
conformity  with  the  old  ones;  that  is  to  say,  to  relate  the 
action  of  mind  upon  inert  bodies  outside  of  us  to  the  action 
of  mind  upon  the  matter  in  our  bodies  —  such  is  the  only 
problem  which  the  science  of  to-day  can  reasonably  propose 
to  itself.     Thury  states  it  in  general  terms  as  follows : 

General  Question  of  the  Action  of  Mind  upon  Matter. — 
We  shall  seek  to  formulate  the  results  of  experiment  up  to 
the  point  where  experiment  abandons  us.  Erom  there  on 
we  shall  study  all  the  alternatives  offered  to  our  mind,  as 
simple  possibilities,  some  of  which  will  give  place  to  hy- 
potheses explanatory  of  the  new  phenomena. 

First  principle:  In  the  ordinary  state  of  the  hody,  the 
will  acts  directly  only  in  the  sphere  of  the  organism. — 
Matter  belonging  to  the  external  world  is  modified  on  con- 
tact with  the  organism,  and  the  modifications  which  it  un- 
dergoes gradually  produce  others  by  contiguity.  It  is  thus 
that  we  can  act  upon  objects  at  a  distance  from  us.  Our 
action  at  a  distance  upon  all  that  surrounds  us  is  mediate 
and  not  immediate.  We  believe  that  this  is  true  of  the 
action  of  all  physical  forces,  such  as  gravity,  heat,  elec- 
tricity. Their  effect  is  gradually  communicated,  and  thus 
alone  they  put  distance  behind  them  and  come  into  relation 
with  man  as  a  sentient  being. 

Second    principle:     In    the    organism    itself    there    is    a 
series  of  mediate  acts. —  Thus  the  will  does  not  act  directly 


284  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

upon  the  bones  which  receive  the  movement  of  the  muscles; 
nor  does  the  will  modify  any  more  directly  the  muscles, 
since,  when  deprived  of  nerves,  they  are  incapable  of  move- 
ment. Does  the  will  act  directly  upon  the  nerves  ?  It  is  a 
mooted  question  whether  it  modifies  them  directly  or  indi- 
rectly. Thus  the  substance  upon  w^hich  the  soul  immedi- 
ately acts  is  still  undetermined.  The  substance  may  be 
solid,  may  be  fluid;  it  may  be  a  substance  still  unknown, 
or  perhaps  a  particular  state  of  known  substances.  In  order 
to  avoid  a  circumlocution,  let  me  give  it  a  name.  I  shall 
call  it  the  'psy diode  {^-^xn,  soul,  and  ^8os,  way). 

Third  'principle:  The  substance  upon  which  the  mind 
immediately  acts  —  the  psychode  —  is  only  susceptible  of 
very  simple  modifications  under  the  influence  of  the  mind, 
for,  since  the  movements  are  to  be  somewhat  varied,  an 
extensive  and  complicated  apparatus  appears  in  the  organ- 
ism,—  a  whole  system  of  muscles,  vessels,  nerves,  etc.,  which 
are  wanting  in  the  inferior  animals  (among  whom  move- 
ments are  very  simple),  and  which  would  have  been  un- 
necessary had  matter  been  directly  susceptible  of  modifica- 
tions equally  varied  under  the  influence  of  mind.  When 
movements  are  intended  to  be  very  simple  (as  in  the  case 
of  infusoria)  the  complicated  apparatus  is  wanting  and 
the  life-spirit  acts  upon  matter  that  is  almost  homogeneous. 

The  following  four  hypotheses  regarding  the  psychode 
may  be  formed: 

a.  The  psychode  is  a  substance  peculiar  to  the  organism, 
and  not  capable  of  emerging  from  it.  It  acts  only 
mediately  upon  everything  outside  of  the  visible  organism. 

b.  The  psychode  is  a  substance  peculiar  to  the  organism, 
capable  of  extending  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visible  organ- 
ism under  certain  special  conditions.  The  modifications  it 
receives  necessarily  act  upon  other  inert  bodies.  The  will 
acts  upon  the  psychode,  and  thus  mediately,  upon  the  bodies 
that  the  sphere  of  this  substance  embraces. 

c.  The  psychode  is  a  universal  substance  which  is  con- 
ditioned in  its  action  on  other  inert  bodies  by  the  structure 
of  living  organisms,  or  by  a  certain  state  of  inorganic  bodies 
—  a  state  determined  by  the  influence  of  living  organisms 
in  certain  special  conditions. 


EESEARCHES  OF  PROFESSOR  THURY     285 

d.  The  psjchode  is  a  peculiar  state  of  matter,  a  state 
iabitually  produced  within  the  sphere  of  the  organism,  but 
which  may  also  be  produced  beyond  its  limits  under  the 
influence  of  a  certain  state  of  the  organism, —  an  influence 
comparable  to  that  of  magnets  in  the  phenomena  of  dia- 
magnetism. 

Thury  proposes  the  adjective  edeneic  (from  e/creveta, 
extension)  to  describe  that  special  state  of  the  organism  in 
which  the  mind  can,  in  some  measure,  extend  the  habitual 
limits  of  its  action,  and  he  styles  "  ecteneic  force "  that 
which  is  developed  in  this  state. 

The  first  hypothesis  (he  adds)  would  not  be  at  all 
adapted  to  explain  the  phenomena  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned. But  the  three  others  give  rise  to  three  different 
explanations,  in  which  (he  assures  us)  the  greater  part  of 
the  phenomena  investigated  will  be  comprised. 

Explanations  based  upon  the  Intervention  of  Spirits. — 
M.  de  Gasparin  has  sho'wn  the  error  of  all  these  explana- 
tions : 

1.  By  theological  considerations. 

2.  By  the  very  just  remark  that  we  should  not  resort  to 
explanations  which  introduce  spirits  into  the  problem  un- 
til other  interpretations  have  been  proved  to  be  entirely  in- 
sufficient. 

3.  Finally,  by  physical  considerations. 

Looking  at  the  question  here  solely  from  the  general 
physical  point  of  view,  I  do  not  follow  M.  de  Gasparin  (says 
Thury)  in  his  exploitation  of  theological  explanations.  As 
to  the  second,  I  will  only  call  attention  to  the  suggestion 
that  the  sufficiency  of  explanations  purely  physical  should 
strictly  apply  only  to  the  Valleyres  experiments,  where,  in 
truth,  nothing  gives  evidence  of  the  intervention  of  wills 
other  than  the  human  will. 

The  question  of  the  intervention  of  spirits  might  be  de- 
cided from  the  tenor  or  content  of  the  revelations,  in  any 
case  in  which  this  content  would  be  such  as  evidently  could 


286  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

not  have  originated  in  the  human  mind.  It  is  not  my  in- 
tention to  discuss  this  point.  The  present  study  takes  cog- 
nizance solely  of  movements  of  inert  bodies,  and  we  have 
only  to  consider,  among  the  arguments  of  M.  de  Gasparin, 
those  which  are  included  in  this  field  of  view. 

Now  his  arguments  on  this  point  seem  to  me  to  be  all 
summed  up  in  these  slightly  ironical  lines :  ^'  Strange 
spirits !  .  .  .  whose  presence  or  absence  could  depend 
upon  a  rotation,  depend  upon  cold  or  warmth,  or  health: 
or  disease,  on  high  spirits  or  lassitude,  on  an  unskilful 
company  of  unconscious  magicians!  I  have  the  headache 
or  the  grip,  therefore  the  daemonic  beings  will  not  be  able 
to  appear  to-day.'^ 

M.  de  Mirville,  who  believes  in  spirits  who  manifest 
themselves  through  the  agency  of  the  fluid,  might  reply  to 
Gasparin  that  the  conditions  of  the  ostensible  manifestation 
of  spirits  are  perhaps  the  fluidic  state  itself;  that  if  this 
is  so,  we  might  very  well,  in  a  seance  phenomenon,  have  a 
fluidic  manifestation  without  the  intervention  of  spirits,  but 
not  the  intervention  of  spirits  without  a  preliminary  fluidic 
manifestation,  and  that,  thus,  anyone  will  invite  such  mani- 
festation only  at  his  own  risk  and  peril. 

Thury  next  discusses  how  the  question  of  spirits  ought 
to  be  considered. 

The  task  of  science  (he  writes)  is  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth.  It  cannot  do  so  if  it  borrows  a  part  of  its  data 
from  revelation  or  from  tradition ;  to  do  this  would  be  a 
begging  of  the  question,  and  the  testimony  of  science  would 
become  worthless. 

The  facts  of  the  natural  order  are  connected  with  two 
categories  of  forces,  the  one  that  of  necessity,  the  other  that 
of  freedom.  To  the  first  belong  the  general  forces  of 
gravitation,  heat,  light,  electricity,  and  the  vegetative  force. 
It  is  possible  that  we  may  discover  others  some  day;  but  at 
present  th oy  are  the  only  ones  we  know.  To  the  second 
category  belong  solely  the  mind  of  animals  and  that  of  man. 
These  are  truly  forces,  since  they  are  the  cause  of  move- 
ments and  of  various  phenomena  in  the  physical  world. 


EESEARCHES  OF  PROCESSOR  THURY     287 

Experience  instructs  lis  that  these  mental  forces  manifest 
:  themselves  bj  the  intermediary  of  special  organisms,  very 
complex  in  the  case  of  man  and  the  superior  animals,  but 
simple  in  that  of  the  lowest,  among  which  latter  class  mind 
has  no  need  of  muscles  and  nerves  in  order  to  manifest  itself 
externally,  but  seems  to  act  directly  upon  a  homogeneous 
matter,  the  movements  of  which  it  determines  (the  amoeba 
of  Ehrenberg).  It  is  in  these  elementary  organizations  that 
the  problem  of  the  action  of  mind  on  matter  is  stated,  after 
a  fashion,  in  its  simplest  terms. 

When  once  we  have  admitted  the  existence  of  the  will 
as  distinct,  at  least  in  principle,   from  the  material  body, 
it   becomes    solely    a    question    of   experience   to    ascertain 
;  whether  other  wills  than  that  of  man  and  the  animals  play 
any  role  whatever,  frequent  or  occasional,  on  the  stage  of 
life.     If  these  wills  exist,  they  will  have  some  means  or 
,  other   of   manifestation,   with  which   experience   alone   can 
;  make  us  acquainted.     As   a  matter  of  fact,   all  that  it  is 
:  possible  to  afBrm,  a  priori,  is  that,  in  order  to  appear,  they 
must  manifest  themselves  through  some  one  of  the  forms  of 
the  eternal  substance  we  call  matter.     But,  to  say  that  this 
matter  must  necessarily  have  an  organization  of  muscles, 
nerves,  etc.,  would  be  to  hold  to  a  very  narrow  idea,  and 
one  already  belied  by  observation  of  the   animal  kingdom 
in  its  lower  types.     As  long  as  we  do  not  know  what  the 
bond  is  that  unites  the  mind  to  the  matter  in  which  it  mani- 
'  fests  itself,  it  would  be  perfectly  illogical  to  lay  down,  a 
I  priori,  particular  conditions  which  matter  must  observe  in 
'■  this  manifestation.     These  conditions  are  at  present  wholly 
■  undetermined.     Thus  we  are  at  liberty  to  seek  for  signs 
of  these  manifestations  in  the  cosmic  ether  or  in  ponderable 
matter;   in   the  gases,   the  liquids,   or  the   solids;   in  unor- 
ganized matter,  or  particularly  in  matter  already  organized, 
such  as  that  of  which  man  and  the  animals  are  built  up. 
It  would  be  poor  logic  to  affirm  that  other  wills  than  those 
of  men   and   animals  cannot  be   discovered,   on  the  ground 
that,   heretofore,   nothing  of   the   kind   has   been   seen ;   for 
facts  of  this  kind  may  have  been  observed,  but  not  scien- 
tifically elucidated   and   authenticated.     Furthermore  these 
wills  might   appear  only  at  long  intervals,   or  what  seem 


288  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

long  to  us;  but  the  vast  abysses  of  nature's  epochs  are  not 
to  be  spanned  by  our  little  memories  or  measured  by  the 
momentary  duration  of  our  lives. 

Such  are  the  facts  and  the  ideas  set  forth  in  this  conscien- 
tious monograph  of  Professor  Thury.  It  is  easily  seen 
that,  in  his  opinion   (1)  the  phenomena  are  positive  facts; 

(2)  that  they  are  produced  by  an  unknown  substance,  to 
which  he  gives  the  name  psychode,  a  something  that,  by 
the  hypothesis,  exists  in  us  and  serves  as  the  intermediary 
between  the  mind  and  the  body,  between  the  will  and  the 
organs,  and  can  project  itself  beyond  the  limits  of  the  body; 

(3)  that  the  hypothesis  of  spirits  is  not  absurd,  and  that 
there  may  exist  in  this  world  other  wills  than  those  of  man 
and  the  animals,  wills  capable  of  acting  on  matter. 

Professor  Marc  Thury  died  in  1905,  having  devoted  his 
entire  life  to  the  study  of  the  exact  sciences.  His  specialty 
was  astronomy. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  EXPE:BIMENTS  of  the  rHALECTICAL  SOCIETY  OF  LOXDOIT 

A  well-known  association  of  scholars  and  scientists,  the 
Dialectical  Society  of  London,  founded  in  1867  under  the 
presidency  of  Sir  John  Lubbock,  resolved,  in  the  year  1869, 
to  include  within  the  sphere  of  its  observations,  the  physical 
phenomena  which  it  is  the  object  of  this  volume  to  study. 
After  a  series  of  experiments  the  society  published  a  report, 
to  which  it  added  the  attestations,  upon  the  same  subject, 
of  a  certain  number  of  scientists,  among  whom  I  had  the 
honor  of  being  included.*  This  report  was  translated  into 
French  by  Dr.  Dusart  and  published  f  in  the  series  of  psychic 
works  so  happily  planned  and  directed  by  Count  de  Rochas. 
To  give  a  true  idea  here  of  the  results  reached  by  this  so- 
ciety I  cannot  do  better  than  cite  the  salient  and  essential 
portions  of  this  purely  scientific  memoir. 

Two  or  three  paragraphs  from  the  beginning  of  the  report 
will  show  how  and  at  what  time  the  society  first  took  up 
psycho-physical  studies : 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  London  Dialectical  Society,  held  on 
Wednesday,  the  6th  of  January,  1869,  Mr.  J.  H.  Levy  in 
the  chair,  it  was  resolved :  — 

"  That  the  Council  be  requested  to  appoint  a  Committee 
in  conformity  with  Bye-law  VIL,  to  investigate  the 
Phenomena  alleged  to  be  Spiritual  Manifestations,  and  to 
report  thereon." 

*  Report  on  Spiritualism  of  the  Committee  of  the  London  Dialectical 
Society,  London:     1871. 

t  In  one  vol.  8vo.     Paris :    Leymarie,  1900. 

289 


290  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

This  committee  was  formed  on  January  26  following.  It 
was  composed  of  twenty-seven  members.  Among  these  we 
note  Alfred  Kiissel  Wallace,  the  learned  naturalist  and 
member  of  the  Royal  Society,  of  London.  Professor  Huxley 
and  George  Henry  Lewis  were  asked  to  collaborate  with  the 
committee.  They  refused.  Professor  Huxley's  letter  is  too 
characteristic  to  be  omitted: 

Sir, —  I  regret  that  I  am  unable  to  accept  the  invitation 
of  the  Council  of  the  Dialectical  Society  to  co-operate  with 
a  Committee  for  the  investigation  of  '^  Spiritualism ;  ''  and 
for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  I  have  no  time  for  such 
an  inquiry,  which  would  involve  much  trouble  and  (un- 
less it  were  unlike  all  inquiries  of  that  kind  I  have  known) 
much  annoyance.  In  the  second  place,  I  take  no  interest  in 
the  subject.  The  only  case  of  ''  Spiritualism  "  I  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  examining  into  for  myself,  was  as  gross 
an  imposture  as  ever  came  under  my  notice.  But  suppos- 
ing the  phenomena  to  be  genuine  —  they  do  not  interest  me. 
If  any  body  would  endow  me  with  the  faculty  of  listening 
to  the  chatter  of  old  women  and  curates  in  the  nearest 
cathedral  town,  I  should  decline  the  privilege,  having  better 
things  to  do. 

And  if  the  folk  in  the  spiritual  world  do  not  talk  more 
wisely  and  sensibly  than  their  friends  report  them  to  do, 
I  put  them  in  the  same  category. 

The  only  good  that  I  can  see  in  a  demonstration  of  the 
truth  of  ^'  Spiritualism  "  is  to  furnish  an  additional  argu- 
ment against  suicide.  Better  live  a  crossing-sweeper  than 
die  and  be  made  to  talk  twaddle  by  a  ''  medium ''  hired  at 
a  guinea  a  seance. 

I  am,  sir,  etc., 
29th  January,  1869.  T.  H.  Huxley. 

As  if  opposing  a  direct  negative  and  rebuke  to  this  radical 
scepticism,  based  on  a  single  seance  of  observation  (  !)  the 
learned  electrician,  Cromwell  Fleetwood  Varley,  in  1867, 
who  did  so  much  to  forward  and  encourage  the  laying  of 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPEKIMENTS     291 

the  third  (and  finally  successful)  Atlantic  cable  between 
Europe  and  America,  hastened  to  identify  himself  with 
the  investigations,  and  bj  his  aid  materially  furthered  the 
progress  of  this  scientific  examination. 

The  report,  with  its  various  pieces  of  testimony,  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Dialectical  Society  on  the  20th  of  July,  1870. 
But,  in  order  not  to  compromise  the  society,  it  was  decided 
not  to  publish  it  officially,  under  the  segis  of  the  associa- 
tion. Consequently  the  committee  unanimously  resolved  to 
publish  the  report  on  its  own  responsibility.  It  reads  as 
follows : 

Your  Committee  have  held  fifteen  meetings,  at  which 
they  received  evidence  from  thirty-three  persons,  who  de- 
scribed phenomena  which,  they  stated,  had  occurred  within 
their  own  personal  experience. 

Your  Committee  have  received  written  statements  relat- 
ing to  the  phenomena  from  thirty-one  persons. 

Your  Committee  invited  the  attendance  and  requested  the 
co-operation  and  advice  of  scientific  men  who  had  publicly 
expressed  opinions,  favourable  or  adverse,  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  phenomena. 

Your  Committee  also  specially  invited  the  attendance  of 
persons  who  had  publicly  ascribed  the  phenomena  to  im- 
posture or  delusion. 

As  it  appeared  to  your  Committee  to  be  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  they  should  investigate  the  phenomena  in 
question  by  personal  experiment  and  test,  they  resolved 
themselves  into  sub-committees  as  the  best  means  of  doing 
so. 

Six  Sub-committees  were  accordingly  formed. 

These  reports,  hereto  subjoined,  substantially  corroborate 
each  other,  and  w^ould  appear  to  establish  the  following 
propositions :  — 

1.  That  sounds  of  a  varied  character,  apparently  pro- 
ceeding from  articles  of  furniture,  the  floor  and  walls  of 
the  room  (the  vibrations  accompanying  which  sounds  are 
often   distinctly   perceptible   to   the   touch)    occur,   without 


292  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

being    produced    by    muscular    action    or    mechanical    con- 
trivance. 

2.  That  movements  of  heavy  bodies  take  place  without 
mechanical  contrivance  of  any  kind  or  adequate  exertion  of 
muscular  force  by  the  persons  present,  and  frequently 
without  contact  or  connection  with  any  person. 

3.  That  these  sounds  and  movements  often  occur  at  the 
times  and  in  the  manner  asked  for  by  persons  present, 
and,  by  means  of  a  simple  code  of  signals,  answer  questions 
and  spell  out  coherent  communications. 

4.  That  the  answers  and  communications  thus  obtained 
are,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  commonplace  character;  but 
facts  are  sometimes  correctly  given  which  are  only  knovm 
to  one  of  the  persons  present. 

5.  That  the  circumstances  under  which  the  phenomena 
occur  are  variable,  the  most  prominent  fact  being  that  the 
presence  of  certain  persons  seem  necessary  to  their  occur- 
rence, and  that  of  others  generally  adverse.  But  this  dif- 
ference does  not  appear  to  depend  upon  any  belief  or  dis- 
belief concerning  the  phenomena. 

6.  That,  nevertheless,  the  occurrence  of  the  phenomena  is 
not  insured  by  the  presence  or  absence  of  such  persons  re- 
spectively. 

The  oral  and  written  evidence  received  by  your  Com- 
mittee not  only  testifies  to  phenomena  of  the  same  nature 
as  those  witnessed  by  the  sub-committees,  but  to  others  of 
a  more  varied  and  extraordinary  character. 

This  evidence  may  be  briefly  summarized  as  follows :  — 

1.  Thirteen  witnesses  state  that  they  have  seen  heavy 
bodies  —  in  some  instances  men  —  rise  slowly  in  the  air 
and  remain  there  for  some  time  without  visible  or  tangible 
support. 

2.  Fourteen  witnesses  testify  to  having  seen  hands  oi 
figures,  not  appertaining  to  any  human  being,  but  life-like 
in  appearance  and  mobility,  which  they  have  sometimes 
touched  or  even  grasped,  and  which  they  are  therefore  con- 
vinced were  not  the  result  of  imposture  or  illusion. 

3.  Five  witnesses  state  that  they  have  been  touched,  by 
some  invisible  agency,  on  various  parts  of  the  body,  and 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPERIMENTS     293 

often  where  requested,  when  the  hands  of  all  present  were 
visible. 

4.  Thirteen  witnesses  declare  that  they  have  heard 
musical  pieces  well  played  upon  instruments  not  manipu- 
lated by  any  ascertainable  agency. 

5.  Five  witnesses  state  that  they  have  seen  red-hot  coals 
applied  to  the  hands  or  heads  of  several  persons  without 
producing  pain  or  scorching;  and  three  witnesses  state  that 
they  have  had  the  same  experiment  made  upon  themselves 
with  the  like  immunity. 

6.  Eight  witnesses  state  that  they  have  received  precise 
information  through  rappings,  writings,  and  in  other  ways, 
the  accuracy  of  which  was  unknown  at  the  time  to  them- 
selves or  to  any  persons  present,  and  which,  on  subsequent 
inquiry,  was  found  to  be  correct. 

7.  One  witness  declares  that  he  has  received  a  precise 
and  detailed  statement  w^hich,  nevertheless,  proved  to  be 
entirely  erroneous. 

8.  Three  witnesses  state  that  they  have  been  present  when 
drawings,  both  in  pencil  and  colors,  were  produced  in  so 
short  a  time,  and  under  such  conditions,  as  to  render  human 
agency  impossible. 

9.  Six  witnesses  declare  that  they  have  received  informa- 
tion of  future  events,  and  that  in  some  cases  the  hour  and 
minute  of  their  occurrence  have  been  accurately  foretold, 
days  and  even  weeks  before. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  evidence  has  been  given  of 
trance-speaking,  of  healing,  of  automatic  writing,  of  the 
introduction  of  flowers  and  fruits  into  closed  rooms,  of 
voices  in  the  air,  of  visions  in  crystals  and  glasses,  and  of 
the  elongation  of  the  human  body. 

Some  extracts  from  the  reports  will  give  my  readers  a 
better  idea  of  these  experiments  and  show  their  wholly  scien- 
tific character: 

All  of  these  meetings  were  held  at  the  private  residences 
of  members  of  the  Committee,  purposely  to  preclude  the 
possiblity  of  prearranged  mechanism  or  contrivance. 


294  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

The  furniture  of  the  room  in  which  the  experiments  were 
conducted  was  on  every  occasion  its  accustomed  furniture. 

The  tables  were  in  all  cases  heavy  dining-tables,  requir- 
ing a  strong  effort  to  move  them.  The  smallest  of  them 
was  5ft.  9in.  long  by  4ft.  wide,  and  the  largest,  9ft.  Sin. 
long  and  4:'yoft  wide,  and  of  proportionate  weight. 

The  room,  tables,  and  furniture  generally  were  repeatedly 
subjected  to  careful  examination  before,  during,  and  after 
the  experiments,  to  ascertain  that  no  concealed  machinery, 
instrument  or  other  contrivances  existed  by  means  of  which 
the  sounds  or  movements  hereinafter  mentioned  could  be 
caused. 

The  experiments  were  conducted  in  the  light  of  gas, 
except  on  the  few  occasions  specially  noted  in  the  minutes. 

Your  Committee  have  avoided  the  emplojonent  of  pro- 
fessional or  paid  mediums,  the  mediumship  being  that  of 
members  of  your  Sub-committee,  persons  of  good  social 
position  and  of  unimpeachable  integrity,  having  no 
pecuniary  object  to  serve,  and  nothing  to  gain  by  deception. 

Of  the  members  of  your  Sub-committee  about  four- 
fifths  entered  upon  the  investigation  wholly  sceptical  as 
to  the  reality  of  the  alleged  phenomena,  firmly  believing 
them  to  be  the  result  either  of  imposture  or  of  delusion,  or 
of  involuntary  muscular  action.  It  was  only  by  irresistible 
evidence,  under  conditions  that  precluded  the  possibility 
of  either  of  these  solutions,  and  after  trial  and  test  many 
times  repeated,  that  the  most  sceptical  of  your  Sub-com- 
mittee were  slowly  and  reluctantly  convinced  that  the 
phenomena  exhibited  in  the  course  of  their  protracted  in- 
quiry were  veritable  facts. 

A  description  of  one  experiment,  and  the  manner  of 
conducting  it,  will  best  show  the  care  and  caution  with 
which  your  Committee  have  pursued  their  investigations. 

So  long  as  there  was  contact,  or  even  the  possibility  of 
contact,  by  the  hands  or  feet,  or  even  by  the  clothes  of  any 
person  in  the  room,  with  the  substance  moved  or  sounded, 
there  could  be  no  perfect  assurance  that  the  motions  and 
sounds  were  not  produced  by  the  person  so  in  contact.  The 
following  experiment  was  therefore  tried; 

On  an  occasion  when  eleven  members  of  your  Sub-corn- 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPERIMEIS^TS     295 

mittee  had  been  sitting  round  one  of  the  dining-tables  above 
described  for  forty  minutes,  and  various  motions  and 
sounds  had  occurred,  they,  by  way  of  test,  turned  the  backs 
of  their  chairs  to  the  table,  at  about  nine  inches  from  it. 
They  all  then  knelt  upon  their  chairs,  placing  their  arms 
upon  the  backs  thereof.  In  this  position,  their  feet  were  of 
course  turned  away  from  the  table,  and  by  no  possibility 
could  be  placed  under  it  or  touch  the  floor.  The  hands  of 
each  person  were  extended  over  the  table  at  about  four 
inches  from  the  surface.  Contact,  therefore,  with  any  part 
of  the  table  could  not  take  place  without  detection. 

In  less  than  a  minute  the  table,  untouched,  moved  four 
times;  at  first  about  five  inches  to  one  side,  then  about 
twelve  inches  to  the  opposite  side,  and  then,  in  like  manner, 
four  inches  and  six  inches  respectively. 

The  hands  of  all  present  were  next  placed  on  the  backs 
of  their  chairs,  and  about  a  foot  from  the  table,  which 
again  moved,  as  before,  five  times,  over  spaces  varying  from 
four  to  six  inches.  Then  all  the  chairs  were  removed 
twelve  inches  from  the  table,  and  each  person  knelt  on 
his  chair  as  before,  this  time  however  folding  his  hands 
behind  his  back,  his  body  being  thus  about  eighteen  inches 
from  the  table,  and  having  the  back  of  the  chair  between 
himself  and  the  table.  The  table  again  moved  four  times, 
in  various  directions.  In  the  course  of  this  conclusive  ex- 
periment, and  in  less  than  half-an-hour,  the  table  thus 
moved,  without  contact  or  possibility  of  contact  with  any 
person  present,  thirteen  times,  the  movements  being  in  dif- 
ferent directions,  and  some  of  them  according  to  the  re- 
quest of  various  members  of  your  Sub-committee. 

The  table  was  then  carefully  examined,  turned  upside 
down  and  taken  to  pieces,  but  nothing  was  discovered  to 
account  for  the  phenomena.  The  experiment  was  con- 
ducted throughout  in  the  full  light  of  gas  above  the  table. 

Altogether,  your  Sub-committee  have  witnessed  upwards 
of  fifty  similar  motions  without  contact  on  eight  different 
evenings,  in  the  houses  of  members  of  your  Sub-committee, 
the  most  careful  tests  being  applied  on  each  occasion. 

In  all  similar  experiments  the  possibility  of  mechanical 
or  other  contrivance  was  further  negatived  by  the  fact  that 


296  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  movements  were  in  various  directions,  now  to  one  side, 
then  to  the  other ;  now  up  the  room,  now  down  the  room  — 
motions  that  would  have  required  the  co-operation  of  many- 
hands  or  feet;  and  these,  from  the  great  size  and  weight 
of  the  tables,  could  not  have  been  so  used  without  the 
visible  exercise  of  muscular  force.  Every  hand  and  foot 
was  plainly  to  be  seen  and  could  not  have  been  moved 
without  instant  detection. 

The  motions  were  witnessed  simultaneously  by  all 
present.  They  were  matters  of  measurement,  and  not  of 
opinion  or  fancy.  And  they  occurred  so  often,  under  so 
many  and  such  various  conditions,  with  such  safeguards 
against  error  or  deception,  and  with  such  invariable  results, 
as  to  satisfy  the  members  of  your  Sub-committee  by  whom 
the  experiments  were  tried,  wholly  sceptical  as  most  of 
them  were  when  they  entered  upon  the  investigation,  that 
there  is  a  force  capable  of  moving  heavy  bodies  without 
material  contact^  and  which  force  is  in  some  unknown  man- 
ner dependent  upon  the  presence  of  human  beings. 

Such  was  the  first  verdict  of  science  upon  Spiritualistic 
doings  in  England,  a  verdict  rendered  by  physicists,  chem- 
ists, astronomers  and  naturalists,  several  of  them  members 
of  the  London  Royal  Society.  The  investigations  were  un- 
der the  especial  care  of  Professor  Morgan,  president  of  the 
Mathematical  Society,  of  London ;  of  Yarley,  chief  electrical 
engineer  of  the  department  of  telegraphs,  and  Alfred  Wal- 
lace, naturalist,  etc.  Several  members  of  the  Dialectical 
Society  refused  to  join  in  the  conclusions  of  the  committee, 
and  declared  they  ought  to  be  verified  by  another  scientist; 
for  example,  by  the  chemist,  Crookes.  This  gentleman  ac- 
cepted the  proposition,  and  in  this  way  it  was  that  he  began 
his  experiments,  of  which  more  anon. 

But,  before  presenting  an  account  of  the  experiments  of 
the  eminent  chemist,  I  should  like  to  place  before  my  read- 
ers the  chief  points  settled  by  the  Experimental  Committee, 
of  which  I  have  just  spoken. 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPERIMENTS     297 

SPECIAL    OBSERVATIONS. 

March  dth.  Nine  members  present.  Reunion  at  eight 
o'clock.  The  following  phenomena  were  produced:  1. 
The  members  of  the  circle  standing,  rested  the  tips  of  their 
fingers  only  on  the  table.  It  made  a  considerable  move- 
ment. 2.  Holding  their  hands  a  few  inches  above  the 
table,  and  no  one  in  any  way  touching  it,  it  moved  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  a  foot.  3.  To  render  the  experiment 
absolutely  conclusive,  all  present  stood  clear  away  from  the 
table,  and  stretching  out  their  hands  over  it  without  touch- 
ing it,  it  again  moved  as  before,  and  about  the  same  dis- 
tance. During  this  time,  one  of  the  Committee  was  placed 
upon  the  floor  to  look  carefully  beneath  the  table,  while 
others  were  placed  outside  to  see  that  no  person  went  near 
to  the  table.  In  this  position  it  w^as  frequently  moved, 
without  possibility  of  contact  by  any  person  present.  4. 
Whilst  thus  standing  clear  of  the  table,  but  with  the  tips 
of  their  fingers  resting  upon  it,  all  at  the  same  moment 
raised  their  hands  at  a  given  signal;  and  on  several  oc- 
casions the  table  jumped  from  the  floor  to  an  elevation 
varying  from  half  an  inch  to  an  inch.  5.  All  held  their 
hands  close  above  the  table,  but  not  touching  it,  and  then 
on  a  word  of  command  raised  them  suddenly,  and  the  table 
jumped  as  before.  The  member  lying  on  the  floor,  and 
those  placed  outside  the  circle,  were  keenly  watching  as 
before,  and  all  observed  the  phenomena  as  described. 

April  15th,  Eight  members  present.  Sitting  at  8  p.  m. 
Within  five  minutes  tapping  sounds  Avere  heard  on  the  leaf 
of  the  table.  Various  questions,  as  to  order  of  sitting,  etc., 
were  put,  and  answered  by  rappings.  The  alphabet  was 
called  for,  and  the  word  '^  laugh  "  was  spelled  out.  It  was 
asked  if  it  was  intended  that  we  should  laugh.  An  affirma- 
tive answer  being  given,  the  members  laughed;  upon  which 
the  table  made  a  most  vigorous  sound  and  motion  imitative 
of  and  responsive  to  the  laughter,  and  so  ludicrous  as  to 
cause  a  general  peal  of  real  laughter,  to  which  the  table 
shook,  and  the  rapping  kept  time  as  an  accompaniment. 
The  following  questions   were  then  put  and  answered  by 


298  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  number  of  raps  given :  —  How  many  children  has  Mrs. 

M ?  "     "  Four ;  "  "  Mrs.  W ? ''     Three ; ''  ''  Mrs. 

D ?"     K'o    rap;    ''Mrs.    E V    "Five;''    "Mrs. 

S ?  "     "  Two."     It  was  ascertained,  upon  inquiry  that 

these  replies  were  perfectly  correct,  except  in  the  case  of 

Mrs.   E ,  who   has   only  four   children  living,   but  has 

lost  one.  ^Neither  the  medium  nor  any  person  present,  was 
aware  of  all  the  above  numbers,  but  each  number  was 
known  to  some  of  them.  The  inquiry  for  a  written  com- 
munication being  responded  to  by  three  raps,  some  sheets 
of  paper  with  a  pencil  were  laid  under  the  table,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  sitting  examined,  but  no  letter  or  mark  was 
found  on  the  paper.  In  order  to  test  whether  these  sounds 
would  continue  under  different  conditions,  all  sat  some  dis- 
tance from  the  table,  holding  hands  in  a  circle  round  it. 
But  instead  of  upon  the  table  as  before,  loud  rappings 
were  heard  to  proceed  from  various  parts  of  the  floor,  and 
from  the  chair  on  which  the  medium  sat ;  while  some  came 
from  the  other  side  of  the  room,  a  distance  of  about  fifteen 
feet  from  the  nearest  person.  A  desire  having  been  ex- 
pressed for  a  shower  of  raps,  loud  rapping  came  from  every 
part  of  the  table  at  once,  producing  an  effect  similar  to  that 
of  a  shower  of  hail  falling  upon  it.  The  sounds  throughout 
the  evening  were  very  sharp  and  distinct.  It  was  observed 
that,  although  during  the  conversation  the  rappings  are 
sometimes  of  a  singularly  lively  character,  yet  when  a  ques- 
tion is  put  they  cease  instantly,  and  not  one  is  heard  until 
the  response  is  given. 

April  2dth.  Xine  members  present.  Medium  and  con- 
ditions as  before.  In  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the  table 
made  sundry  movements  along  the  floor,  with  rappings. 
The  sounds  at  first  were  very  softly  given,  but  subsequently 
became  much  stronger.  They  beat  time  to  the  airs  played 
by  a  musical  box,  and  came  from  any  part  of  the  table  re- 
quested by  the  members.  Some  questions  were  put  and 
followed  by  raps,  but  more  frequently  by  tilting  of  the 
table  at  its  sides,  ends,  or  corners,  the  elevation  being  from 
one  to  four  inches.  An  endeavour  was  made  by  those  sit- 
ting near,  to  prevent  the  table  from  rising,  but  it  resisted 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPEEIMENTS     299 

all  their  efforts.  The  chair  on  which  the  medium  was 
seated  was  drawn  several  times  over  the  ffoor.  First  it 
moved  backward  several  feet;  then  it  gave  several  twists 
and  turns,  and  finally  returned  with  the  medium  to  nearly 
its  original  position.  The  chair  had  no  casters,  and  moved 
quite  noiselessly,  the  medium  appearing  perfectly  still  and 
holding  her  feet  above  the  carpet;  so  that  during  the  en- 
tire phenomenon  no  part  of  her  person  or  of  her  dress 
touched  the  floor.  There  was  bright  gaslight,  and  the  mem- 
bers had  a  clear  opportunity  to  observe  all  that  occurred; 
and  all  agreed  that  imposture  was  impossible.  While  this 
was  going  on,  a  rapping  sound  came  continually  from  the 
floor  beneath  and  around  the  chair.  It  was  then  suggested 
that  trials  should  be  made  if  the  table  would  move  without 
contact.  All  present,  including  the  medium  stood  quite 
clear  of  the  table,  holding  their  hands  from  three  to  six 
inches  above  it,  and  without  any  way  of  touching  it.  Ob- 
servers were  placed  under  it  to  see  that  it  was  not  touched 
there.     The  following  were  the  observations : 

1.  The  table  repeatedly  moved  along  the  floor  in  differ- 
ent directions,  often  taking  that  requested.  Thus,  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  desire  expressed  that  it  should  move  from 
the  front  to  the  back  room,  it  took  that  direction,  and,  on 
approaching  the  folding  doors  and  meeting  with  an  obstruc- 
tion, turned  as  if  to  avoid  it. 

2.  On  a  given  signal  all  raised  their  hands  suddenly,  and 
the  table  immediately  sprang  or  jerked  up  from  the 
floor  about  one  inch. 

Various  members  of  the  Committee  volunteered  by  turns 
to  keep  watch  below  the  table,  whilst  others  standing  round 
them  carefully  noted  everything  that  took  place ;  but  no  one 
could  discover  any  visible  agency  in  their  production. 

May  18th.  Music  was  played  on  the  piano-forte,  and 
one  piece  was  accompanied  by  tapping  sounds  from  all  parts 
of  the  table,  and  another  piece  both  by  tapping  sounds, 
vibrations,  and  slight  vertical  movements  of  the  table  at 
its  sides,  ends,  and  corners.  The  sounds  and  movements 
all  kept  time  with  the  music.  The  same  phenomena  also 
occurred  when  a  song  was  sung.     During  the  seance  the 


I 


300  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

sounds   were   very   equally   distributed,   being   seldom   con- 
fined to  one  part  of  the  table. 

June  9th.  Eight  members  present.  The  most  interest- 
ing fact  this  evening  was,  that  though  the  tapping  sounds 
proceeded  from  different  parts  of  the  table,  but  principally 
from  that  in  front  of  the  medium ;  yet,  when,  she  went  into 
the  hall  to  receive  a  message,  they  still  continued  to  come 
from  that  part  of  the  table. 

The  alphabet  being  repeated  in  accordance  with  the  sig- 
nal, "  Queer  Pals  "  was  spelt  out.  These  words  seemed  to 
amuse  and  puzzle  the  meeting.  However,  it  was  suggested 
they  might  apply  to  the  Christy  Minstrels,  whose  nigger 
melodies,  at  St.  George's  Hall,  were  very  clearly  heard 
through  the  open  window  of  the  back  room.  At  this  sugges- 
tion the  table  gave  three  considerable  tilts. 

June  17th.  The  medium  held  a  sheet  of  note  paper  at 
arm's  length  over  the  table  by  one  of  its  corners,  and,  at 
request,  faint  but  distinct  taps  were  heard  upon  it.  The 
other  corners  of  the  paper  were  then  held  by  members  of 
the  Committee,  and  the  sounds  were  again  heard  by  all  at 
the  table;  while  those  who  held  the  paper  felt  the  impact 
of  the  invisible  blows.  One  or  more  questions  were  an- 
swered in  this  way  by  three  clear  and  distinctly  audible 
taps,  which  had  a  sound  similar  in  character  to  that  pro- 
duced by  dropping  water.  This  new  and  curious  phenom- 
enon occurred  close  under  the  eyes  of  all  present,  without 
any  physical  cause  for  it  being  detected. 

June  21st.  Movement  of  harmonican  without  contact. 
On  the  medium  and  two  other  members  holding  their  hands 
above  the  harmonican  without  in  any  way  touching  it,  it 
moved  almost  entirely  round,  by  successive  jerks,  on  the 
table  on  which  it  was  placed.  The  dining-table  was 
strongly  moved  a  distance  of  six  feet,  the  hands  of  the 
members  present  resting  lightly  on  it. 

Oct.  18th.  A  cylinder  of  canvas,  three  feet  in  height, 
and  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  was  placed  under  a  small 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPERIMENTS      301 

table,  the  legs  of  which  were  contained  within  it.  Inside 
the  cylinder  was  a  bell,  resting  on  the  floor.  No  sounds 
proceeded  from  the  bell,  but  there  were  repeated  rappings 
upon  and  jerkings  of  the  table.  This  cylinder  precluded 
the  possibility  of  contact  with  the  table  by  a  foot  of  any  of 
the  persons  present,  during  the  entire  continuance  of  the 
knockings  and  jerkings  of  the  table. 

Dec.  14:th,  Sounds  from  table  without  contact. —  All  sat 
away  from  the  table,  without  in  any  manner  touching  it, 
and  the  sounds,  although  somewhat  fainter,  continued  to 
proceed  from  it. 

Dec.  ''2Sth.  Movements  without  contact. —  Question: 
"  Would  the  table  now  be  moved  without  contact  ?  "  An- 
swer :     "  Yes,"  by  three  raps  on  the  table. 

All  chairs  were  then  turned  with  their  backs  to  the  table, 
and  nine  inches  away  from  it ;  and  all  present  knelt  on  the 
chairs,  with  their  wrists  resting  on  the  backs,  and  their 
hands  a  few  inches  above  the  table. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  table  (the  heavy  dining-room 
table  previously  described)  moved  four  times,  each  time 
from  four  to  six  inches,  and  the  second  time  nearly  twelve 
inches. 

Then  all  hands  were  placed  on  the  backs  of  the  chairs, 
and  nearly  a  foot  from  the  table,  when  four  movements 
occurred,  one  slow  and  continuous,  for  nearly  a  minute. 
Then  all  present  placed  their  hands  behind  their  backs, 
kneeling  erect  on  their  chairs,  which  were  removed  a  foot 
clear  away  from  the  table ;  the  gas  also  was  turned  up  higher, 
so  as  to  give  abundance  of  light,  and  under  these  test  con- 
ditions, distinct  movements  occurred,  to  the  extent  of  sev- 
eral inches  each  time,  and  visible  to  every  one  present. 

The  motions  were  in  various  directions,  towards  all  parts 
of  the  room  —  some  were  abrupt,  others  steady.  At  the 
same  time,  and  under  the  same  conditions,  distinct  raps 
occurred,  apparently  both  on  the  floor  and  on  the  table, 
in  answer  to  requests  for  them.  The  above  described  move- 
ments were  so  unmistakable,  that  all  present  unhesitatingly 
declared  their   conviction,   that   no  physical   force,   exerted 


302  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

by  any  one  present,  could  possibly  have  produced  them. 
And  they  declared,  further,  in  writing,  that  a  rigid  ex- 
amination of  the  table,  showed  it  to  be  an  ordinary  din- 
ing-table,  wdtli  no  machinery  or  apparatus  of  any  kind  con- 
nected with  it.  The  table  was  laid  on  the  floor  with  its  legs 
up,  and  taken  to  pieces  as  far  as  practicable. 

Special  Observations. 

These  experiments  are  only  a  repetition  and  absolute  con- 
firmation of  those  that  have  been  described  all  through  this 
volume,  from  its  very  first  pages.  Yet  they  are  enough  in 
themselves  alone  to  justify  one's  convictions. 

This  first  sub-committee,  the  principal  experiments  of 
which  we  have  been  giving,  was  studying  only  physical  phe- 
nomena. Sub-committee  l\o.  2  was  more  especially  occupied 
with  intelligent  communications  and  mediumistic  dictations. 
They  need  not  detain  us  here,  but  will  find  their  place  in  a 
special  work  on  Spiritualism. 

The  same  committee  published  in  its  general  report  the 
following  letter,  which  it  did  me  the  honor  of  requesting: 

I  must  confess  to  you,  in  the  first  place,  gentlemen,  that, 
of  those  who  call  themselves  "  mediums ''  and  "  spiritists," 
a  considerable  number  are  persons  of  limited  intelligence, 
incapable  of  bringing  the  experimental  method  to  bear  on 
the  investigation  of  this  order  of  phenomena,  and  conse- 
quently are  often  the  dupes  of  their  credulity  or  ignorance; 
while  others,  of  whom  the  number  is  also  considerable,  are 
impostors  whose  moral  sense  has  become  so  blunted  by  the 
habit  of  fraud  that  they  seem  to  be  incapable  of  appreciat- 
ing the  heinousncss  of  their  criminal  abuse  of  the  confi- 
dence of  those  who  apply  to  them  for  instruction  or  for 
consolation. 

And  even  where  the  subject  is  being  investigated  seriously 
and  in  good  faith,  the  force  to  which  the  production  of 
these  phenomena  is  due  is  so  capricious  in  its  action  that 
much  delay  and  disappointment  is  inevitable  in  the  prose- 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPEKIMEXTS     303 

cution  of  any  experimental  inquiry  in  regard  to  them.  It 
is,  therefore,  no  easy  matter  to  put  aside  the  obstacles  thus 
placed  in  the  way  of  the  serious  inquirer,  to  eliminate 
these  sources  of  error,  and  to  get  at  genuine  manifesta- 
tions of  the  phenomena  in  question;  carefully  guarding 
one's  own  mind  against  all  error,  all  self-deception  in  the 
methodical  and  scrupulous  examination  of  the  order  of 
facts  now  under  discussion.  Nevertheless,  I  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  affirm  my  conviction,  based  on  personal  examination 
of  the  subject,  that  any  scientific  man  who  declares  the 
phenomena  denominated  "  magnetic  "  "  somnambulistic," 
''  mediumistic,"  and  others  not  yet  explained  by  science,  to 
be  "  impossible,"  is  one  wJio  speaks  without  knowing  what 
lie  is  talking  about;  and  also  any  man  accustomed,  by  his 
professional  avocations,  to  scientific  observation  —  provided 
that  his  mind  be  not  biased  by  preconceived  opinions,  nor 
his  mental  vision  blinded  by  that  opposite  kind  of  illusion, 
unhappily  too  common  in  the  learned  world,  which  con- 
sists in  imagining  that  the  laws  of  l^ature  are  already 
known  to  us,  and  that  everything  which  appears  to  over- 
step the  limit  of  our  present  formulas  is  impossible  —  may 
acquire  a  radical  and  absolute  certainty  of  the  reality  of 
the  facts  alluded  to. 

After  an  affirmation  so  categorical,  it  is  hardly  necessary 
for  me  to  assure  the  members  of  the  Dialectical  Society  that 
I  have  acquired,  through  my  own  observation,  the  absolute 
certainty  of  the  reality  of  these  phenomena. 

But  although  thus  compelled,  in  the  absence  of  conclu- 
sive data  in  regard  to  the  cause  of  the  so-called  "  Spiritual 
Phenomena,"  to  refrain  from  making  any  positive  affirma- 
tion in  regard  to  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  may  add  that 
while  the  general  assertion  of  its  spiritual  nature,  on  the 
part  of  the  occult  force  which,  within  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century,  has  thus  manifested  itself  all  over  the  globe, 
constitutes  a  feature  of  the  case  which,  from  its  universality, 
merits  the  attention  of  the  impartial  investigator  —  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  from  the  earliest  ages,  furnishes 
instances  of  coincidences,  previsions  and  presentiments  of 
warnings  experienced  in  certain  critical  moments,  of  ap- 
paritions more  or  less  distinctly  seen,  which  are  stated,  on 


304  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

evidence  as  trustworthy  as  that  which  we  possess  with  re- 
gard to   any  other  branch   of  historical  tradition,   to  have 
occurred,   spontaneously,    in  the   experience   of   all  nations 
and  which  may  therefore  be  held  to  strengthen  the  presump 
tion  of  the  possibility  of  communication  between  incarnate 
and  discarnate  spirits. 

I  may  also  add  that  my  own  investigations  in  the  fields 
of  philosophy  and  of  modern  astronomy  have  led  me,  as  is 
well  known,  to  adopt  a  personal  and  individual  way  of  re- 
garding the  subject  of  space  and  time,  the  plurality  of  in 
habited  worlds,  the  eternity  and  ubiquity  of  the  actin 
forces  of  the  universe,  and  the  indestructibility  of  souls, 
as  well  as  of  atoms. 

The  everlastingness  of  intelligent  life  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  the  result  of  the  harmonious  succession  of  sidereal  incar- 
nations. 

Our  earth  being  one  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  a  province 
of  planetary  existence,  and  our  present  life  being  a  phase 
of  our  eternal  duration,  it  appears  only  natural  (the  super- 
natural does  not  exist)  that  there  should  exist  a  permanent 
link  between  the  spheres,  the  bodies,  and  the  souls  of  the 
universe,  and  therefore  altogether  probable  that  the  exist- 
ence of  this  link  will  be  demonstrated,  in  course  of  time, 
by  the  advance  of  scientific  discovery. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  over-rate  the  importance  of  the 
questions  thus  brought  forward  for  consideration;  and  I 
have  seen  with  lively  satisfaction  the  noble  initiative  which, 
through  the  foiTaation  of  your  Committee  of  Inquiry,  has 
been  taken  by  a  body  of  men  so  justly  eminent  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Dialectical  Society,  in  the  experimental  investi- 
gation of  these  deeply  interesting  phenomena.  I  am  most 
happy,  therefore,  to  comply  with  the  tenor  of  your  letter, 
by  sending  you  the  humble  tribute  of  my  observations  on 
the  subject  in  question,  and  thus  to  have  the  opportunity  of 
offering  to  your  society  the  expression  of  my  sincerest  good 
wishes  for  the  speedy  elucidation  of  the  mysteries  of  nature 
that  have  not  yet  been  brought  within  the  domain  of  jDOsitive 
science.  I  am,  sir,  yours  faithfully, 

Camit.t.e  Fl a isr:^r a-riot^, 
10,  Eue  des  Moineaux  (Palais  Royal) 

Paris,  May  8,  1S70. 


I 


DIALECTICAL  SOCIETY'S  EXPERIMENTS     305 

The  foregoing  resume  of  the  labors  of  the  Dialectical  So- 
ciety of  London  shows  once  more  that  mediumistic  phe- 
nomena long  ago  entered  upon  the  road  of  scientific  experi- 
ment. It  would  seem  as  if  only  the  wilfully  blind  could 
henceforth  deny  their  allegiance. 

The  results  of  the  studies  described  also  form  an  answer 
to  the  question  frequently  asked,  whether  one  can  undertake 
similar  experiments  without  knowing  a  true  medium.  I  re- 
ply that,  in  any  meeting  of  a  dozen  persons,  there  will  al- 
ways be  one  or  more  mediums.  This  was  proved  by  the 
seances  of  the  Count  de  Gasparin. 

The  English  report  also  contains  (May  25,  1869)  a 
communication  from  the  electrician,  Cromwell  Varley,  de- 
claring that  mediumistic  phenomena  could  not  be  discredited 
by  any  observer  of  good  faith,  and  that,  to  him,  the  hypothesis 
of  disembodied  spirits  is  the  one  that  best  explains  them  — 
just  plain,  common  spirits  (as  a  general  thing),  like  the 
majority  of  the  citizens  of  our  planet. 

The  scientific  experiments  of  the  Dialectical  Society's  com- 
mittee were  continued  by  the  ^'  Society  for  Psychical  Ee- 
search,"  founded  in  1882,  the  successive  presidents  of  which 
were  Professor  Sidgwick,  Professor  Balfour  Stewart,  Pro- 
fessor Sidgwick  for  a  second  time,  Professor  William 
James,  Sir  William  Crookes,  Frederick  Myers,  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge,  Professor  Richet  —  all  eminent  in  the  departments 
of  science  and  education.  Let  me  mention  here  the  splendid 
work  of  Dr.  Hodgson  and  of  Professor  Hyslop  in  the  Ameri- 
can branch  of  this  society. 

The  experiments  were  continued,  in  a  masterly  way,  by 
the  celebrated  chemist.  Sir  William  Crookes,  and  yielded 
him  the  most  wondrous  results.  My  readers  will  presently 
realize  this. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    EXPEEIMENTS    OF    SIE    WILLIAM    CROOKES 

The  learned  chemist,  Sir  William  Crookes,  member  of  the 
Eoyal  Society  of  London,  the  author  of  several  discoveries 
of  the  first  rank  (among  which  should  be  placed  the  dis- 
covery, in  1861,  of  the  metal,  thallium),  and  of  ingenious 
experiments  on  ''radiant  matter,"  published  his  first  re- 
searches on  the  subject  we  are  here  considering  in  a  review  of 
which  he  was  the  editor  —  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science, 

I  had  the  honor  of  contributing  certain  astronomical  pa- 
pers to  this  journal.^  I  will  first  lay  before  my  readers  an 
extract  from  Mr.  Crookes's  article  of  the  1st  of  July,  1871, 
entitled  ''  Experimental  Investigation  of  a  Xew  Eorce,"  in 
which  he  describes  his  studies  with  Home.  I  also  had  occa- 
sion myself  more  than  once  to  hold  conversation  with  this 
medium. f 

Twelve  months  ago  in  this  journal,  July  1,  1870,  I  wrote 
an  article,  in  which,  after  expressing  in  the  most  emphatic 
manner  my  belief  in  the  occurrence,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, of  phenomena  inexplicable  by  any  known  natural 
laws,  I  indicated  several  tests  which  men  of  science  had  a 
right  to  demand  before  giving  credence  to  the  genuineness 
of  these  phenomena.  Among  the  tests  pointed  out  were, 
that  a  "  delicately  poised  balance  should  be  moved  under 
test  conditions;"  and  that  some  exhibition  of  power  equiv- 
alent to  so  many  ''  foot-pounds  "  should  be  "  manifested  in 

•See,  for  example,  the  January  number,   1876:   Sidereal  Astronomy. 
t  Especially  at  Nice,  in  1881  and  1884.     Home  died  in  1886.     He  was 
born  in  1833,  near  Edinburgli. 

306 


EXPERIMEXTS  OF  SIE  WM.  CEOOKES     307 

his  laboratory,  where  the  experimentalists  could  weigh,  meas- 
ure, and  submit  it  to  proper  tests."  I  said,  too,  that  I  could 
not  promise  to  enter  fully  into  this  subject,  owing  to  the 
difficulties  of  obtaining  opportunities,  and  the  numerous  fail- 
ures attending  the  enquiry ;  moreover,  that  ^^  the  persons  in 
whose  presence  these  phenomena  take  place  are  few  in  num- 
ber, and  opportunities  for  experimenting  with  previously 
arranged  apparatus  are  rarer  still." 

Opportunities  having  since  offered  for  pursuing  the  in- 
vestigation, I  have  gladly  availed  myself  of  them  for  apply- 
ing to  these  phenomena  careful  scientific  testing  experi- 
ments, and  I  have  thus  arrived  at  certain  definite  results 
which  I  think  it  right  should  be  published.  These  experi- 
ments appear  conclusively  to  establish  the  existence  of  a  new 
force,  in  some  unknown  manner  connected  with  the  human 
organization,  which  for  convenience  may  be  called  the  Psy- 
chic Force. 

Of  all  the  persons  endowed  with  a  powerful  development 
of  this  psychic  force,  and  who  have  been  termed  ^'  mediums  " 
upon  quite  another  theory  of  its  origin,  Mr.  Daniel  Dunglas 
Home  is  the  most  remarkable,  and  it  is  mainly  owing  to 
the  many  opportunities  I  have  had  of  carrying  on  my  inves- 
tigation in  his  presence  that  I  am  enabled  to  affirm  so  con- 
clusively the  existence  of  this  force.  The  experiments  I 
have  tried  have  been  very  numerous,  but  owing  to  our  im- 
perfect knowledge  of  the  conditions  which  favor  or  oppose 
the  manifestations  of  this  force,  to  the  apparently  capricious 
manner  in  which  it  is  exerted,  and  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Home 
himself  is  subject  to  unaccountable  ebbs  and  flows  of  the 
force,  it  has  but  seldom  happened  that  a  result  obtained  on 
one  occasion  could  be  subsequently  confirmed  and  tested 
with  apparatus  specially  contrived  for  the  purpose. 

Among  the  remarkable  phenomena  which  occur  under  Mr. 
Home's  influence,  the  most  striking,  as  well  as  the  most 
easily  tested  with  scientific  accuracy,  are  — (1)  the  alteration 
in  the  weight  of  bodies,  and  (2)  the  playing  of  tunes  upon 
musical  instruments  (generally  an  accordion,  for  convenience 
of  portability)  without  direct  human  intervention,  under 
conditions  rendering  contact  or  connection  with  the  keys  im- 
possible.    Xot  until  I  had  witnessed  these  facts  some  half- 


308  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 


dozen  times,  and  scrutinized  them  with  all  the  critical  acu- 
men I  possess,  did  I  become  convinced  of  their  objective 
reality.  Still,  desiring  to  place  the  matter  beyond  the 
shadow  of  doubt,  I  invited  Mr.  Home  on  several  occasions 
to  come  to  my  own  house,  where,  in  the  presence  of  a  few 
scientific  enquirers,  these  phenomena  could  be  submitted  to 
crucial  experiments. 

The  meetings  took  place  in  the  evening,  in  a  large  room 
lighted  by  gas.  The  apparatus  prepared  for  the  purpose  J 
of  testing  the  movements  of  the  accordion,  consisted  of  a 
cage,  formed  of  two  wooden  hoops,  respectively  1  foot  10 
inches  and  2  feet  diameter,  connected  together  by  12  nar- 
row laths,  each  1  foot  10  inches  long,  so  as  to  form  a  drum- 
shaped  frame,  open  at  the  top  and  bottom;  round  this  50 
yards  of  insulated  copper  wire  were  wound  in  24  rounds, 
each  being  rather  less  than  an  inch  from  its  neighbor.  The 
horizontal  strands  of  wire  were  then  netted  together  firmly 
with  string,  so  as  to  form  meshes  rather  less  than  2  inches 
long  by  1  inch  high.  The  height  of  this  cage  was  such  that 
it  would  just  slip  under  my  dining-table,  but  be  too  close 
to  the  top  to  allow  of  the  hand  being  introduced  into  the 
interior,  or  to  admit  of  a  foot  being  pushed  underneath  it. 
In  another  room  were  two  Grove's  cells,  wires  being  led  from 
them  into  the  dining-room  for  connection,  if  desirable,  with 
the  wire  surrounding  the  cage. 

The  accordion  was  a  new  one,  having  been  purchased  by 
myself  for  the  purpose  of  these  experiments  at  Wheatstone's, 
in  Conduit  Street.  Mr.  Home  had  neither  handled  nor  seen 
the  instrument  before  the  commencement  of  the  test  ex- 
periments. 

In  another  part  of  the  room  an  apparatus  was  fitted  up 
for  experimenting  on  the  alteration  in  the  weight  of  a  body. 
It  consisted  of  a  mahogany  board,  36  inches  long  by  91/2 
inches  wide  and  1  inch  thick.  At  each  end  a  strip  of  ma- 
hogany 11/2  inches  wide  was  screwed  on,  forming  feet.  One 
end  of  the  board  rested  on  a  firm  table,  whilst  the  other  end 
was  supported  by  a  spring  balance  hanging  from  a  substan- 
tial tripod  stand.  The  balance  was  fitted  with  a  self-regis- 
tering index,  in  such  a  manner  that  it  would  record  the 
maximum  weight  indicated  by  the  pointer.     The  apparatus 


i 


Plate  XTI.     Cage  of  Copper  "Wire,  Electrically  Chargel», 

Used  by  Professor  Crookes  ix  the  Home 

AccoRDiox  Experiment. 


EXPEEIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     309 

was  adjusted  so  that  the  mahogany  board  was  horizontal,  its 
foot  resting  flat  on  the  support.  In  this  position  its  weight 
was  3  lbs.,  as  marked  by  the  pointer  of  the  balance. 

Before  Mr.  Home  entered  the  room  the  aj^paratus  had 
been  arranged  in  position,  and  he  had  not  even  the  object 
of  some  parts  of  it  explained  before  sitting  down.  It  may, 
perhaps,  be  worth  while  to  add,  for  the  purpose  of  anticipat- 
ing some  critical  remarks  which  are  likely  to  be  made,  that  in 
the  afternoon  I  called  for  Mr.  Home  at  his  apartments,  and 
when  there  he  suggested  that,  as  he  had  to  change  his  dress, 
perhaps  I  should  not  object  to  continue  our  conversation  in 
his  bedroom.  I  am,  therefore,  enabled  to  state  positively, 
that  no  machinery,  apparatus,  or  contrivance  of  any  sort  was 
secreted  about  his  person. 

The  investigators  present  on  the  test  occasion  were  an 
eminent  physicist,  high  in  the  ranks  of  the  Royal  Society,* 
a  well-known  Serjeant-at-Law;f  my  brother;  and  my  chem- 
ical assistant. 

Mr.  Home  sat  in  a  low  easy-chair  at  the  side  of  the  table. 
In  front  of  him  under  the  table  was  the  aforesaid  cage,  one 
of  his  legs  being  on  each  side  of  it.  I  sat  close  to  him  on 
his  left,  and  another  observer  sat  close  to  him  on  his  right, 
the  rest  of  the  party  being  seated  at  convenient  distances 
round  the  table. 

Eor  the  greater  part  of  the  evening,  particularly  when  any- 
thing of  importance  was  proceeding,  the  observers  on  each 
side  of  Mr.  Home  kept  their  feet  respectively  on  his  feet, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  detect  his  slightest  movement. 

The  temperature  of  the  room  varied  from  68  degrees  to 
70  degrees  F. 

Mr.  Home  took  the  accordion  between  the  thumb  and 
middle  finger  of  one  hand  at  the  opposite  end  to  the  keys 
(see  PL  XII  A)  (to  save  repetition  this  will  be  subse- 
quently called  "  in  the  usual  manner  "). 

Having  previously  opened  the  bass  key  myself,  and  the 
cage  being  drawn  from  under  the  table  so  as  just  to  allow 
the  accordion  to  be  pushed  in  with  its  keys  downwards,  it 

*  Sir  William  Huggins,  an  astronomer  well  known  for  his  discoveries 
in  spectrum  analysis, 
t  Edward  William  Cox. 


310  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

was  pushed  back  as  close  as  Mr.  Home's  arm  would  permi 
but  without  hiding  his  hand  from  those  next  to  him  (P 
XII,  Cut  B).  Very  soon  the  accordion  was  seen  by  those  o 
each  side  to  be  waving  about  in  a  somewhat  curious  mannei 
then  sounds  came  from  it,  and  finally  several  notes  wei 
played  in  succession.  Whilst  this  was  going  on,  my  assistai 
went  under  the  table,  and  reported  that  the  accordion  was  e 
panding  and  contracting;  at  the  same  time  it  was  seen  th 
the  hand  of  Mr.  Home  by  which  it  was  held  was  quite  sti' 
his  other  hand  resting  on  the  table. 

Presently  the  accordion  was  seen  by  those  on  either  si( 
of  Mr.  Home  to  move  about,  oscillating  and  going  roui 
and  round  the  cage,  and  playing  at  the  same  time.  Dr.  . 
B.  now  looked  under  the  table,  and  said  that  Mr.  Home 
hand  appeared  quite  still  whilst  the  accordion  was  movii 
about  emitting  distinct  sounds. 

Mr.  Home  still  holding  the  accordion  in  the  usual  mann 
in  the  cage,  his  feet  being  held  by  those  next  him,  and  1 
other  hand  resting  on  the  table,  we  heard  distinct  and  sej 
rate  notes  sounded  in  succession,  and  then  a  simple  air  ^w 
played.  As  such  a  result  could  only  have  been  produced 
the  various  keys  of  the  instrument  being  acted  upon  in  hi 
monious  succession,  this  was  considered  by  those  present 
be  a  crucial  experiment. 

But  the  sequel  was  still  more  striking,  for  Mr.  Home  th 
removed  his  hand  altogether  from  the  accordion,  taking 
quite  out  of  the  cage^  and  placed  it  in  the  hand  of  the  pers 
next  to  him.  The  instrument  then  continued  to  play,  no  p 
son  touching  it  and  no  hand  being  near  it.  j 

I  was  now  desirous  of  trying  what  would  be  the  effect' 
passing  the  battery  current  round  the  insulated  wire  of  1? 
cage,  and  my  assistant  accordingly  made  the  connection  w  i 
the  wires  from  the  two  Grove's  cells.  Mr.  Home  again  hd 
the  instrument  inside  the  cage  in  the  same  manner  as  - 
fore,  when  it  immediately  sounded  and  moved  about  vig- 
ously.  But  whether  the  electric  current  passing  round  : 
cage  assisted  the  manifestation  of  force  inside,  it  is  impo^- 
ble  to  say. 

After  this  experiment,  the  accordion,  which  he  kept  be- 
ing in  one  hand,  then  commenced  to  play,  at  first  chords  al 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     311 

runs,  and  afterwards  a  well-known  sweet  and  plaintive  mel- 
ody, which  was  executed  perfectly  in  a  very  beautiful  man- 
ner. Whilst  this  tune  was  being  played  I  grasped  Mr. 
Home's  arm,  below  the  elbow,  and  gently  slid  my  hand  down 
it  until  I  touched  the  top  of  the  accordion.  He  was  not 
moving  a  muscle.  His  other  hand  was  on  the  table,  visible 
to  all,  and  his  feet  were  under  the  feet  of  those  next  to  him. 

Having  met  with  such  striking  results  in  the  experiments 
with  the  accordion  in  the  cage,  we  turned  to  the  balance 
apparatus  already  described.  Mr.  Home  placed  the  tips  of 
his  fingers  lightly  on  the  extreme  end  of  the  mahogany  board, 
which  was  resting  on  the  support,  whilst  Dr.  A.  B.  and 
myself  sat,  one  on  each  side  of  it,  watching  for  any  effect 
which  might  be  produced.  Almost  immediately  the  pointer 
of  the  balance  was  seen  to  descend.  After  a  few  seconds  it 
rose  again.  This  movement  was  repeated  several  times,  as 
if  by  successive  weaves  of  the  psychic  force.  The  end  of  the 
board  was  observed  to  oscillate  slowly  up  and  down  during 
the  experiment. 

Mr.  Home  now  of  his  own  accord  took  a  small  hand-bell 
and  a  little  card  match-box,  which  happened  to  be  near,  and 
placed  one  under  each  hand,  to  satisfy  us,  as  he  said,  that 
he  was  not  producing  the  downward  pressure  (see  Fig.  3). 
The  very  slow  oscillation  of  the  spring  balance  became  more 
marked,  and  Dr.  A.  B.,  watching  the  index,  said  that  he 
saw  it  descend  to  6I/2  lbs.  The  normal  weight  of  the  board 
as  so  suspended  being  3  lbs.,  the  additional  downward  pull 
was  therefore  3I/2  lbs.  On  looking  immediately  afterwards 
at  the  automatic  register,  we  saw  that  the  index  had  at  one 
time  descended  as  low  as  9  lbs.,  showing  a  maximum  pull  of 
6  lbs.  upon  a  board  whose  normal  weight  was  3  lbs. 

In  order  to  see  whether  it  w^as  possible  to  produce  much 
effect  on  the  spring  balance  by  pressure  at  the  place  where 
Mr.  Home's  fingers  had  been,  I  stepped  upon  the  table  and 
stood  on  one  foot  at  the  end  of  the  board.  Dr.  A.  B.,  who 
was  observing  the  index  of  the  balance,  said  that  the  whole 
weight  of  my  body  (140  lbs.)  so  applied  only  sunk  the  index 
1%  lbs.,  or  2  lbs.  when  I  shook  it  ?  Mr.  Home  had  been 
sitting  in  a  low  easy-chair,  and  could  not,  therefore,  had 
he  tried  his   utmost,    have  exerted  any  material   influence 


312  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

on  these  results.     I  need  scarcely  add  that  his  feet  as  well 
as  his  hands  were  closely  guarded  by  all  in  the  room. 

This  experiment  appears  to  me  more  striking,  if  possible, 
than  the  one  with  the  accordion.  As  will  be  seen  on  re- 
ferring to  the  cut  (Fig.  3),  the  board  was  arranged  per- 
fectly horizontally,  and  it  was  particularly  noticed  that  ]\Ir. 
Home's  fingers  were  not  at  any  time  advanced  more  than 
li/o  inches  from  the  extreme  end,  as  showTi  by  a  pencil- 
mark,  which,  with  Dr.  A.  B.'s  acquiescence,  I  made  at  the. 


Fig.  3.  1 


time.  1^0 w,  the  wooden  foot  being  also  1^/2  inches  wide,  and 
resting  flat  on  the  table,  it  is  evident  that  no  amount  oi 
pressure  exerted  within  this  space  of  II/2  inches  could  pro- 
duce any  action  on  the  balance.  Again,  it  is  also  evideni 
that  when  the  end  farthest  from  Mr.  Home  sank,  the  boarc 
would  turn  on  the  farther  edge  of  this  foot  as  on  a  fulcrum 
The  arrangement  was  consequently  that  of  a  see-saw,  3( 
inches  in  length,  the  fulcrum  being  l^/o  inches  from  one  end 
were  he,  therefore,  to  have  exerted  a  downward  pressure,  i 
would  have  been  in  opposition  to  the  force  wliich  was  causing 
the  other  end  of  the  board  to  move  down. 


EXPEKIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     313 

The  slight  downward  pressure  shown  by  the  balance  when 
I  stood  on  the  board  was  owing  probably  to  my  foot  extend- 
ing beyond  this  fulcrum. 

I  have  now  given  a  plain,  unvarnished  statement  of  the 

facts  from  copious  notes  written  at  the  time  the  occurrences 

.  were  taking  place,  and  copied  out  in  full  immediately  after. 

Respecting  the  cause  of  these  phenomena,  the  nature  of  the 
-  force  to  which,  to  avoid  periphrasis,  I  have  ventured  to  give 
I  the  name  of  Psychic,  and  the  correlation  existing  between 
that  and  the  other  forces  of  nature,  it  would  be  wrong  to 
hazard  the  most  vague  hypothesis.  Indeed,  in  inquiries  con- 
nected so  intimately  with  rare  physiological  and  psycho- 
logical conditions,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  inquirer  k)  abstain 
altogether  from  framing  theories  until  he  has  accumulated 
a  sufficient  number  of  facts  to  form  a  substantial  basis  upon 
which  to  reason.  In  the  presence  of  strange  phenomena  as 
yet  unexplored  and  unexplained  following  each  other  in  such 
rapid  succession,  I  confess  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  clothing 
their  record  in  language  of  a  sensational  character.  But,  to 
be  successful,  an  inquiry  of  this  kind  must  be  under- 
taken by  the  philosopher  without  prejudice  and  without  sen- 
timent. Romantic  and  superstitious  ideas  should  be  entirely 
banished,  and  the  steps  of  his  investigation  should  be  guided 
by  intellect  as  cold  and  passionless  as  the  instruments  he  uses. 

Apropos  of  this  Mr.  Cox  wrote  to  Mr.  Crooks : 

The  results  appear  to  me  conclusively  to  establish  the 
important  fact,  that  there  is  a  force  proceeding  from  the 
nerve-system  capable  of  imparting  motion  and  weight  to 
solid  bodies  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence. 

I  noticed  that  the  force  was  exhibited  in  tremulous  pulsa- 
tions, and  not  in  the  form  of  steady  continuous  pressure,  the 
indicator  rising  and  falling  incessantly  throughout  the  ex- 
periment. The  fact  seems  to  me  of  great  significance,  as 
tending  to  confirm  the  opinion  that  assigns  its  source  to  the 
nerve  organization,  and  it  goes  far  to  establish  Dr.  Richard- 
son's important  discovery  of  a  nerve  atmosphere  of  various 
intensity  enveloping  the  human  structure. 

Your  experiments  completely  confirm  the  conclusion  at 


314  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

which  the  Investigation  Committee  of  the  Dialectical  Society 
arrived,  after  more  than  forty  meetings  for  trial  and  test. 

Allow  me  to  add  that  I  can  find  no  evidence  even  tending 
to  prove  that  this  force  is  other  than  a  force  proceeding 
from,  or  directly  dependent  upon,  the  human  organization, 
and  therefore,  like  all  other  forces  of  nature,  wholly  within 
the  province  of  that  strictly  scientific  investigation  to  which 
you  have  been  the  first  to  subject  it. 

]^ow  that  it  is  proved  by  mechanical  tests  to  be  a  fact 
in  nature  (and  if  a  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  its 
importance  to  physiology  and  the  light  it  must  throw  upon 
the  obscure  laws  of  life,  of  mind  and  the  science  of  medi- 
cine) it  cannot  fail  to  command  the  immediate  and  most 
earnest  examination  and  discussion  by  physiologists  and  by 
all  who  take  an  interest  in  that  knowledge  of  "  man,'^  which 
has  been  truly  termed  ^'  the  noblest  study  of  mankind." 

To  avoid  the  appearance  of  any  foregone  conclusion,  I 
would  recommend  the  adoption  for  it  of  some  appropriate 
name,  and  I  venture  to  suggest  that  the  force  be  termed  the 
Psychic  Force;  the  persons  in  whom  it  is  manifested  in  ex- 
traordinary power  Psychics;  and  the  science  relating  to  it 
Psychism  as,  being  a  branch  of  psychology. 

The  preceding  article  was  published  separately  by  Wil- 
liam Crookes  in  a  special  brochure  which  lies  before  me,* 
and  which  contains,  in  addition,  the  following  study,  not 
less  curious  from  the  human  and  anecdotical  point  of  view 
than  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  experimenter  in  physics : 

When  I  first  stated  in  this  journal  that  I  was  about  to 
investigate  the  phenomena  of  so-called  Spiritualism,  the  an- 
nouncement called  forth  universal  expressions  of  approval. 
One  said  that  my  "  statements  deserved  respectful  consid- 
eration " ;  another  expressed  ^'  profound  satisfaction  that  the 
subject  was  about  to  be  investigated  by  a  man  so  thoroughly 
qualified  as,''  etc. ;  a  third  was  "  gratified  to  learn  that  the 

*  Experimental  Investigation  on  Psychic  Force,  by  William  Crookes, 
F.  R.  L.,  etc.,  London,  Henry  Oilman,  1871.  The  brochure  was  trans- 
lated into  French  by  M.  Alidel,  Paris.  Psychical  Science  Publishing 
House,  1897. 


I 


EXPERIMEIS^TS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     315 


atter  is  now  receiving  the  attention  of  cool  and  clear-headed 
len  of  recognized  position  in  science  " ;  a  fourth  asserted 
lat  "  no  one  could  doubt  Mr.  Crookes's  ability  to  conduct 
le  investigation  with  rigid  philosophical  impartiality  '' ;  and 
fifth  was  good  enough  to  tell  its  readers  that  ''  if  men  like 
[r.  Crookes  grapple  with  the  subject,  taking  nothing  for 
ranted  until  it  is  proved,  we  shall  soon  know  how  much 
)  believe." 

i  These  remarks,  however,  were  written  too  hastily.  It  was 
iken  for  granted  by  the  writers  that  the  results  of  my  ex- 
eriments  would  be  in  accordance  with  their  preconceptions, 
v^'hat  they  really  desired  was  not  tlie  truth,  but  an  additional 
'itness  in  favor  of  their  own  foregone  conclusion.  When 
ley  found  that  the  facts  which  that  investigation  established 
ould  not  be  made  to  fit  those  opinions,  why  — '^  so  much  the 
^orse  for  the  facts.''  They  try  to  creep  out  of  their  own 
onfident  recommendations  of  the  enquiry  by  declaring  that 
Mr.  Home  is  a  clever  conjurer,  who  has  duped  us  all." 
Mr.  Crookes  might,  with  equal  propriety,  examine  the  per- 
ormances  of  an  Indian  juggler."  ^'  Mr.  Crookes  must  get 
etter  witnesses  before  he  can  be  believed."  "  The  thing  is 
00  absurd  to  be  treated  seriously."  "  It  is  impossible,  and 
herefore  can't  be."  *  "  The  observers  have  all  been  biol- 
gized  (  ! )  and  fancy  they  saw  things  occur  which  really 
lever  took  place,"  etc. 

These  remarks  imply  a  curious  oblivion  of  the  very  func- 
ions  which  the  scientific  enquirer  has  to  fulfill.  I  am 
carcely  surprised  when  the  objectors  say  that  I  have  been 
leceived  merely  because  they  are  unconvinced  without  per- 
onal  investigation,  since  the  same  unscientific  course  of  a 
iriori  argument  has  been  opposed  to  all  great  discoveries. 
vVIien  I  am  told  that  what  I  describe  cannot  be  explained 
n  accordance  with  preconceived  ideas  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
;he  objector  really  begs  the  very  question  at  issue,  and  re- 
ports to  a  mode  of  reasoning  which  brings  science  to  a  stand- 
still. The  argument  runs  in  a  vicious  circle:  we  must  not 
assert  a  fact  till  we  know  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  nature,  while  our  only  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 

*  The  quotation  occurs  to  me  — "  I  never  said  it  was  possible,  I  only 
said  it  was  true." 


316  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  PORCES 

nature  must  be  based  on  an  extensive  observation  of  facts. 
If  a  new  fact  seems  to  oppose  what  is  called  a  law  of  nature, 
it  does  not  prove  the  asserted  fact  to  be  false,  but  only  that 
we  have  not  yet  ascertained  all  the  laws  of  nature,  or  not 
learned  them  correctly. 

In  his  opening  address  before  the  British  Association  at 
Edinburgh  this  year  (1871),  Sir  William  Thomson  said, 
^^  Science  is  bound  by  the  everlasting  law  of  honor  to  face 
fearlessly  every  problem  which  can  fairly  be  presented  to 
it."  My  object  in  thus  placing  on  record  the  results  of  a 
very  remarkable  series  of  experiments  is  to  present  such  a 
problem,  which,  according  to  Sir  William  Thomson,  ''  Sci- 
ence is  bound  by  the  everlasting  law  of  honor  to  face  fear- 
lessly." It  will  not  do  merely  to  deny  its  existence,  or  try 
to  sneer  it  dow^n.  Remember,  I  hazard  no  hypothesis  or 
theory  whatever;  I  merely  vouch  for  certain  facts,  my  only 
object  being  —  the  truth.  Doubt,  but  do  not  deny;  point 
out,  by  the  severest  criticism,  what  are  considered  fallacies 
in  my  experimental  tests,  and  suggest  more  conclusive  trials ; 
but  do  not  let  us  hastily  call  our  senses  lying  witnesses 
merely  because  they  testify  against  preconceptions.  I  say 
to  my  critics.  Try  the  experiments;  investigate  with  care 
and  patience  as  I  have  done.  If,  having  examined,  you 
discover  imposture  or  delusion,  proclaim  it  and  say  how  it 
was  done.  Rut,  if  you  find  it  be  a  fact,  avow  it  fearlessly, 
as  ''by  the  everlasting  law  of  honor  "  you  are  bound  to  do. 

In  this  part  of  his  work  Professor  Crookes  recalls  the  ex- 
periments of  Count  de  Gasparin  and  of  Thury  (detailed 
above)  on  the  phenomenon  of  the  movement  of  bodies  without 
contact,  a  thing  proved  and  demonstrated.  We  need  not;|| 
recur  to  that.  He  adds  that  the  ecteneic  force  of  Professor,! 
Thury  and  psychical  force  are  equivalent  terms,  and  that  the^ 
nervous  atmosphere  or  fluid  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Richardson^ 
also  belongs  here. 

Professor  Crookes  sent  his  observations  to  the  Royal  So-^ 
ciety,  of  which  he  is  a  member.  The  society  refused  hiaj 
communications.     The  evidence   goes  to  show  that  it  hac 


EXPEKIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES      317 

only  approved  of  the  gifted  chemist's  mixing  in  heretical 
and  occult  researches  on  consideration  of  his  demonstrating 
the  fallacy  of  all  those  prodigies. 


Fig.  4. 


Fig.  5. 


Professor   Stokes,  the  secretary,  refused  to  consider  the 
subject  at  all,  or  to  inscribe  even  the  title  of  the  papers  in 


318  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  society's  publications.  It  was  an  exact  repetition  of 
what  took  place  at  the  Academy  of  Science  in  Paris  in  1853. 
Professor  Crookes  scorned  these  arbitrary  and  anti-scientific 
judgments  and  denials  and  answered  them  by  publishing  the 
detailed  description  of  his  experiments.  The  following  are 
the  essential  points*  of  this  description: 


Vv^ 


Fig.  g. 


On  trying  these  experiments  for  the  first  time,  I  thought 
that  actual  contact  between  Mr.  Home's  hands  and  the  sus- 
pended body  whose  weight  was  to  be  altered  was  essential 
to  the  exhibition  of  the  force;  but  I  found  afterwards  that 
this  was  not  a  necessary  condition,  and  I  therefore  arranged 
my  apparatus  in  the  following  manner : 

The  accompanying  cuts  (Figs.  4,  5,  6)  explain  the  ar- 
rangement. Fig.  4  is  a  general  view,  and  Figs.  5  and  6 
show  the  essential  parts  more  in  detail.  The  reference  let- 
ters are  the  same  in  each  illustration.  A  B  is  a  mahogany 
board,  36  inches  long  by  O^A  inches  wide  and  1  inch  thick. 
It  is  suspended  at  the  end,  B,  by  a  spring  balance,  C,  fur- 


EXPEEIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     319 

Eihed  with  an  automatic  register,  D.     The  balance  is  sns- 
f  ided  from  a  very  firm  tripod  support,  E. 

The  following  piece  of  apparatus  is  not  shown  in  the  fig- 
vis.  To  the  moving  index,  O,  of  the  spring  balance,  a  fine 
sel  point  is  soldered,  projecting  horizontally  outwards.  In 
f  mt  of  the  balance,  and  firmly  fastened  to  it,  is  a  grooved 
f  .me  carrying  a  flat  box  similar  to  the  dark  box  of  a  photo- 
giphic  camera.  This  box  is  made  to  travel  by  clock-work 
trizontally  in  front  of  the  moving  index,  and  it  contains  a 
S3et  of  plate-glass  which  has  been  smoked  over  a  flame. 
Te  projecting  steel  point  impresses  a  mark  on  this  smoked 
s  :f  ace. 

If  the  balance  is  at  rest,  and  the  clock  set  going,  the  result 

i;  a   perfectly    straight   horizontal    line.     If   the    clock    is 

s  pped  and  weights  are  placed  on  the  end,  B,  of  the  board, 

t3  result  is  a  vertical  line,  whose  length  depends  on  the 

Tight  applied.     If,  whilst  the  clock  draws  the  plate  along, 

t3  weight  of  the  board  (or  the  tension  on  the  balance)  va- 

rs,  the  result  is  a  curved  line,  from  which  the  tension  in 

giins  at  any  moment  during  the  continuance  of  the  experi- 

i^nts  can  be  calculated. 

The  instrument  was  capable  of  registering  a  diminution 

(  the  force  of  gravitation  as  well  as  an  increase;  regis- 

titions  of  such  a  diminution  were  frequently  obtained.     To 

£oid  complication,  however,  I  will  only  here  refer  to  results 

i  which  an  increase  of  gravitation  was  experienced. 

The  end,  B,  of  the  board  being  supported  by  the  spring 

1  lance,  the  end.  A,   is  supported  on  a  wooden  strip,   F, 

jrewed  across  its  lower  side  and  cut  to  a  knife  edge  (see 

-g.  6).     This  fulcrum  rests  on  a  firm  and  heavy  wooden 

imd,  G  H.     On  the  board,  exactly  over  the  fulcrum,  is 

]aced  a  large  glass   vessel  filled  with  water,   I.     L  is   a 

rassive  iron  stand,  furnished  with  an  arm  and  ring,  M  N, 

:  which  rests  a  hemispherical  copper  vessel  perforated  with 

iveral  holes  at  the  bottom. 

The  iron  stand  is  two  inches  from  the  board,  A  B,  and 

e  arm  and  copper  vessel,  M  ^,  are  so  adjusted  that  the 

tter  dips  into  the  water  l^^  inches,  being  Sl/o  inches  from 

e  bottom  of  I,  and  2  inches  from  its  circumference.     Shak- 

g  or  striking  the  arm,  M,  or  the  vessel,  ]^,  produces  no 


320  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

appreciable  mechanical  effect  on  the  board,  A  B,  capable  of 
affecting  the  balance.  Dipping  the  hand  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent into  the  water  in  X,  does  not  produce  the  least  appreci- 
able action  on  the  balance. 

As  the  mechanical  transmission  of  power  by  Mr.  Home 
is  by  this  means  entirely  cut  off  between  the  copper  vessel 
and  the  board,  A  B,  it  follows  that  the  power  of  muscular 
control  is  thereby  completely  eliminated. 

There  was  always  ample  light  in  the  room  where  the 
experiments  were  conducted  (my  o^vn  dining-room)  to  see 
all  that  took  place.  Furthermore,  I  repeated  the  experi- 
ments, not  only  with  Mr.  Home,  but  also  with  another  per- 
son possessing  similar  powers. 


Fig.  7. 


I 


Experiment  I. —  The  apparatus  having  been  properly  ad- 
justed before  Mr.  Home  entered  the  room,  he  was  brought 
in,  and  asked  to  place  his  fingers  in  the  water  in  the  coppei 
vessel,  ^N".  He  stood  up  and  dipped  the  tips  of  the  fingers 
of  his  right  hand  in  the  water,  his  other  hand  and  his  feei 
being  held.  When  he  said  he  felt  a  power,  force,  or  influ 
ence,  proceeding  from  his  hand,  I  set  the  clock  going,  anc 
almost  immediately  the  end,  B,  of  the  board  was  seen  t( 
descend  slowly  and  remain  down  for  about  10  seconds ;  i 
then  descended  a  little  farther,  and  afterwards  rose  to  iti 
normal  height.  It  then  descended  again,  rose  suddenly 
gradually  sunk  for  17  seconds,  and  finalh^  rose  to  its  norma 
height,  where  it  remained  till  the  experiment  was  concluded 
The  lowest  point  marked  on  the  glass  was  equivalent  to  a  di 
rect  pull  of  about  5,000  grains.  The  accompanying  figur 
7  is  a  copy  of  the  curve  traced  on  the  glass. 

Experiment  11. —  Contact  through  water  having  prove* 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     321 

ito  be  as  effectual  as  actual  mechanical  contact,  I  wished  to 
see  if  the  power  or  force  could  affect  the  weight,  either 
through  other  portions  of  the  apparatus  or  through  the  air. 
The  glass  vessel  and  iron  stand,  etc.,  were  therefore  re- 
moved, as  an  unnecessary  complication,  and  Mr.  Home's 
hands  were  placed  on  the  stand  of  the  apparatus  at  P  (Eig. 
1 4).  A  gentleman  present  put  his  hand  on  Mr.  Home's 
hands,  and  his  foot  on  both  Mr.  Home's  feet,  and  I  also 
watched  him  closely  all  the  time.  At  the  proper  moment  the 
clock  was  again  set  going;  the  board  descended  and  rose  in 


V^ 


XJ^ 


Fig.  9. 


Fig.  10. 


an  irregular  manner,  the  result  being  a  curved  tracing  on  the 
glass,  of  which  Eig.  8  is  a  copy. 

Experiment  HI. —  Mr.  Home  was  now  placed  1  foot  from 
the  board,  A  B,  on  one  side  of  it.  His  hands  and  feet  were 
firmly  grasped  by  a  bystander,  and  another  tracing,  of  which 
Fig.  9  is  a  copy,  was  taken  on  a  moving  glass  plate. 

Experiment  IV. — (Tried  on  an  occasion  when  the  power 
was  stronger  than  on  the  previous  occasions.)  Mr.  Home 
was  now  placed  three  feet  from  the  apparatus,  his  hands 
and  feet  being  tightly  held.     The  clock  was  set  going  when 


322 


MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  rORCES 


he  gave  the  word,  and  the  end,  B,  of  the  hoard  soon  = 
scended,  and  again  rose  in  an  irregular  manner,  as  showD] 
Fig.   10. 

The  following  series  of  experiments  were  tried  with  m; 
delicate  apparatus,  and  with  another  person,  a  ladv,  ]i 
Home  heing  absent.     As  the  ladj  is  non-professional,  II 


Fig.  11. 


Fig.  12. 


not  mention  her  name.  She  has,  however,  consente(  t 
meet  any  scientific  men  whom  I  may  introduce  for  purpse 
of  investigation. 

A  piece  of  thin  parchment,  A,  Figs.  11  and  12,  is  stretnei 
tightly  across  a  circular  hoop  of  wood.  B  C  is  a  light  Ire 
turning  on  D.  At  the  end,  B,  is  a  vertical  needle-pn 
touching  the  membrane,  A,  and  at  C  is  another  needle-p'iit 
pi;ojecting  horizontally  and  touching  a  smoked  glass  p.tt^ 


EXPEEIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CHOOKES     323 

E  F.  This  glass  plate  is  drawn  along  in  the  direction,  H  G, 
by  clockwork,  K.  The  end,  B,  of  the  lever  is  weighted  so 
that  it  shall  quickly  follow  the  movements  of  the  centre  of 
the  disc,  A.  These  movements  are  transmitted  and  recorded 
on  the  glass  plate,  E  F,  by  means  of  the  lever  and  needle- 
point, C.  Holes  are  cut  in  the  side  of  the  hoop  to  allow  a 
free  passage  of  air  to  the  under  side  of  the  membrane. 
The  apparatus  was  well  tested  beforehand  by  myself  and 
others,  to  see  that  no  shaking  or  jar  on  the  table  or  support 
would  interfere  with  the  results.  The  line  traced  by  the 
point,  C,  on  the  smoked  glass  was  perfectly  straight  in  spite 
of  all  our  attempts  to  influence  the  lever  by  shaking  the 
stand  or  stamping  on  the  floor. 

Experiment  F. —  Without  having  the  object  of  the  instru- 


FiQ.  13. 


ment  explained  to  her,  the  lady  was  brought  into  the  room 
and  asked  to  place  her  fingers  on  the  wooden  stand  at  the 
points,  L  M,  Fig.  11.  I  then  placed  my  hands  over  hers  to 
enable  me  to  detect  any  conscious  or  unconscious  movement 
on  her  part.  Presently  percussive  noises  were  heard  on  the 
parchment,  resembling  the  dropping  of  grains  of  sand  on  its 
surface.  At  each  percussion  a  fragment  of  graphite  which 
I  had  placed  on  the  membrane  was  seen  to  be  projected  up- 
wards about  1-5  0th  of  an  inch,  and  the  end,  C,  of  the  lever 
moved  slightly  up  and  down.  Sometimes  the  sounds  were  as 
rapid  as  those  from  an  induction-coil,  whilst  at  others  they 
were  more  than  a  second  apart.  Five  or  six  tracings  were 
taken,  and  in  all  cases  a  movement  of  the  end,  C,  of  the  lever 
was  seen  to  have  occurred  with  each  vibration  of  the  mem- 
brane. 


a^4  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

In  some  cases  the  lady's  hands  were  not  so  near  the  mem-i 
brane  as  L  M,  but  were  at  X  O,  Eig.  12.  ■ 

The  accompanying  figure   13  gives  tracings  taken  from 
the  plates  used  on  these  occasions. 

Experiment  VI . —  Having  met  with  these  results  in  Mr. 
Home's  absence,  I  was  anxious  to  see  what  action  would  be  I 
produced  on  the  instrument  in  his  presence. 

Accordingly  I  asked  him  to  try,  but  without  explaining 
the  instrument  to  him. 

I  grasped  Mr.  Home's  right  arm  above  the  wrist  and  held 


Fig.  14. 


Fig.  15. 


his  hand  over  the  membrane,  about  10  inches  from  its  sur 
face,  in  the  position  shown  at  P,  Eig.  12.  His  other  banc 
was  held  by  a  friend.  After  remaining  in  this  position  foi 
about  half  a  minute,  Mr.  Home  said  he  felt  some  influence 
passing.  I  then  set  the  clock  going,  and  we  all  saw  th< 
index,  C,  moving  up  and  down.  The  movements  were  mud 
slower  than  in  the  former  case,  and  were  almost  entireb 
unaccompanied  by  the  percussive  vibrations  then  noticed. 

Figs.  14  and  15  show  the  curves  produced  on  the  glas 
on  two  of  these  occasions. 

Eigs.  13,  14,  15  arc  magnified. 

These  experiments  confirm  beyond  doubt  the  concluaioi 


I 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     325 

at  which  I  arrived  in  mj  former  paper;  namely,  the  exist- 
ence of  a  force  associated,  in  some  manner  not  yet  explained, 
with  the  himian  organization,  by  which  force  increased 
weight  is  capable  of  being  imparted  to  solid  bodies  without 
.physical  contact. 

,  Now,  however,  having  seen  more  of  Mr.  Home,  I  think  I 
perceive  what  it  is  that  this  psychic  force  uses  np  for  its 
.development.  In  employing  the  terms  vital  force,  or  nervous 
.energy,  1  am  aware  that  I  am  employing  words  which  con- 
vey very  different  significations  to  many  investigators;  but 
after  witnessing  the  painful  state  of  nervous  and  bodily  pros- 
tration in  which  some  of  these  experiments  have  left  Mr. 
Home  —  after  seeing  him  lying  in  an  almost  fainting  con- 
dition on  the  floor,  pale  and  speechless  —  I  could  scarcely 
doubt  that  the  evolution  of  psychic  force  is  accompanied  by 
a  corresponding  drain  on  vital  force. 

To  witness  exhibitions  of  this  force  it  is  not  necessary  to 
have  access  to  known  psychics.  The  force  itself  is  probably 
possessed  by  all  human  beings,  although  the  individuals  en- 
ilowed  with  an  extraordinary  amount  of  it  are  doubtless  few. 
Within  the  last  twelve  months  I  have  met  in  private  fami- 
lies five  or  six  persons  possessing  a  sufficiently  vigorous  de- 
velopment to  make  me  feel  confident  that  similar  results 
alight  be  produced  through  their  means  to  those  here  re- 
3orded,  though  less  intense. 

These  experiments  continued  to  be  the  object  of  bitter 
md  relentless  criticism  on  the  part  of  the  recognized  au- 
:horities  in  science  and  education  in  England.  These  per- 
jons  absolutely  refused  to  recognize  their  value.  Professor 
2!rookes  amused  himself,  at  times,  by  replying  to  these  fan- 
tastic attacks,  but,  naturally,  without  convincing  his  imcom- 
)romising  opponents.  It  is  unnecessary  to  reproduce  these 
'etters  here;  they  can  be  found  in  the  French  edition  of 
Urookes's  Researches.  The  learned  chemist  did  better  still: 
le  continued  his  researches  into  the  domain  of  the  Unknown, 
md  got  still  more  remarkable  results  —  still  more  extraor- 
linary,  more  inexplicable,  more  incomprehensible. 

His  notes  continue  as  follows: 


326  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Like  a  traveler  exploring  some  distant  country,  the  won-, 
ders  of  which  have  hitherto  been  known  only  through  reportu 
and  rumors  of  a  vague  or  distorted  character,  so  for  foui 
years  have  I  been  occupied  in  pushing  an  inquiry  into  t 
territory  of  natural  knowledge  which  offers  almost  virgii 
soil  to  a  scientific  man. 

As  the  traveller  sees  in  the  natural  phenomena  he  ma;; 
witness  the  action  of  forces  governed  by  natural  laws,  when 
others  see  only  the  capricious  intervention  of  offended  gods 
so  have  I  endeavored  to  trace  the  operation  of  natural  lawi 
and  forces,  where  others  have  seen  only  the  agency  of  super, 
natural  beings,  owning  no  laws,  and  obeying  no  force  bu, 
their  own  free  will. 

The  phenomena  I  am  prepared  to  attest  are  so  extraordi 
nary  and  so  directly  oppose  the  most  firmly  rooted  article; 
of  scientific  belief  —  amongst  others,  the  ubiquity  and 
variable  action  of  the  force  of  gravitation  —  that,  even  noi 
on  recalling  the  details  of  what  I  witnessed,  there  is 
antagonism  in  my  mind  between  reason,  wdiich  pronouncel 
it  to  be  scientifically  impossible,  and  the  consciousness  tha, 
my  senses,  both  of  touch  and  sight  —  and  these  corrobc 
rated,  as  they  were,  by  the  senses  of  all  who  were  present,— 
are  not  lying  witnesses  when  they  testify  against  my  preco: 
ceptions. 

But  the  supposition  that  there  is  a  sort  of  mania  or  d^ 
lusion  which  suddenly  attacks  a  whole  roomful  of  intelligen 
persons  who  are  quite  sane  elsew^here,  and  that  they  all  co 
cur  to  the  minutest  particulars,  in  the  details  of  the  occi 
rences  of  which  they  suppose  themselves  to  be  witnesse 
seems  to  my  mind  more  incredible  than  even  the  facts  the 
attest. 

The  subject  is  far  more  difficult  and  extensive  than 
appears.  Four  years  ago  I  intended  only  to  devote  a  leisur 
month  or  two  to  ascertain  whether  certain  marvellous  oi 
currences  I  had  heard  about  would  stand  the  test  of  clog 
scrutiny.  Having,  however,  soon  arrived  at  the  same  coi 
elusion  as,  I  may  say,  every  impartial  inquirer,  that  ther 
was  "  something  in  it,"  I  could  not,  as  a  student  of  nature' 
laws,  refuse  to  follow  the  inquiry  wheresoever  the  fact 
might  lead.     Thus  a  few  months  have  grown  into  a  fe^ 


I 


EXPEKIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES    327 

years,  and,  were  my  time  at  my  own  disposal  it  would  prob- 

'ably  extend  still  longer. 

My  principal  object  will  be  to  place  on  record  a  series  of 

'actual  occurrences  wbich  have  taken  place  in  my  own  house, 

'in  the  presence  of  trustworthy  witnesses,  and  under  as  strict 
test  conditions  as  I  could  devise.  Every  fact  which  I  have 
observ^ed  is,  moreover,  corroborated  by  the  records  of  inde- 
'oendent  observers  at  other  times  and  places.  It  will  be  seen 
:hat  the  facts  are  of  the  most  astounding  character,  and  seem 

i  jtterly  irreconcilable  with  all  known  theories  of  modern  sci- 
'3nce.  Having  satisfied  myself  of  their  truths  it  would  be 
'noral  cowardice  to  withhold  my  testimony  because  my  previ- 
ous publications  were  ridiculed  by  critics  and  others  who 

■  inew  nothing  whatever  of  the  subject,  and  who  were  too 
Prejudiced  to  see  and  judge  for  themselves  whether  or  not 
;here  was  truth  in  the  phenomena.  I  shall  state  simply 
vhat  I  have  seen  and  proved  by  repeated  experiment  and 
;est. 
Except  where  darkness  has  been  a  necessary  condition,  as 

1  with  some  of  the  phenomena  of  luminous  appearances,  and 

'i  few  other  instances,  everything  recorded  has  taken  place 

n  the  light.     In  the  few  cases  where  the  phenomena  noted 

'lave  occurred  in  darkness  I  have  been  very  particular  to 

nention  the   fact.     Moreover,   some  special  reason  can  be 

I  'shown  for  the  exclusion  of  light,  or  the  results  have  been 

I  oroduced  under  such  perfect  test  conditions  that  the  sup- 

!  bression  of  one  of  the  senses  has  not  really  weakened  the 

I  evidence. 

' '  I  have  said  that  darkness  is  not  essential.  It  is,  however, 
I  well-ascertained  fact  that  when  the  force  is  weak  a  bright 
ight  exerts  an  interfering  action  on  some  of  the  phenomena. 
Che  power  possessed  by  Mr.  Home  is  sufficiently  strong  to 
vithstand  this  antagonistic  influence;  consequently,  he  al- 
ways objects  to  darkness  at  his  seances.  Indeed,  except  on 
wo  occasions,  when,  for  some  particular  experiments  of  my 
'wn,  light  was  excluded,  everything  which  I  have  witnessed 
vith  him  has  taken  place  in  the  light.  I  have  had  many 
')pportunities  of  testing  the  action  of  light  on  different 
•ources  and  colors, —  such  as  sunlight,  diffused  daylight, 
'Qoonlight,  gas,  lamp,  and  candle-light,  electric  light  from  a 


328  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

vacuum  tube,  homogeneous  yellow  light,  etc.  The  interfer- 
ing rays  appear  to  be  those  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  spec- 
trum. 

Professor  Crookes  next  proceeds  to  classify  the  phenomena 
observed  by  him,  going  from  the  more  simple  to  the  more  com- 
plex and  giving  in  rapid  review  under  each  head,  a  sketch  of 
some  of  the  facts.  In  the  abridgment  of  his  report  which 
follows  I  eliminate  what  has  already  been  fully  demonstrated 
elsewhere  in  this  book. 

EiEST  CLASS :  The  movement  of  Heavy  Bodies  with  Con- 
tact, hut  without  Mechanical  Exertion. 

(This  movement  has  been  fully  proved  in  this  volume.) 

Second  class  :  The  Phenomena  of  Percussive  and  other 
Allied  Sounds, 

An  important  question  here  forces  itself  upon  the  atten- 
tion. Are  the  movements  and  sounds  governed  hy  intelli- 
gence ?  At  a  very  early  stage  of  the  inquiry,  it  was  seen  that 
the  power  producing  the  phenomena  was  not  merely  a  blind 
force,  but  was  associated  with  or  governed  by  intelligence. 
Thus  the  sounds  to  which  I  have  just  alluded  will  be  repeated 
a  definite  number  of  times.  They  will  come  loud  or  faint, 
and  in  different  places  at  request ;  and  by  a  pre-arranged  code 
of  signals,  questions  are  answered,  and  messages  given  with 
more  or  less  accuracy. 

The  intelligence  governing  the  phenomena  is  sometimes 
manifestly  below  that  of  the  medium.  It  is  frequently  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  medium.  When  a 
determination  has  been  expressed  to  do  something  which 
might  not  be  considered  quite  right,  I  have  known  urgent 
messages  given  to  induce  a  reconsideration.  The  intelligence 
is  sometimes  of  such  a  character  as  to  lead  to  the  belief  that 
it  does  not  emanate  from  any  person  present. 

Third  class:  The  Alteration  of  Weights  of  Bodies. — 
(Experiments  which  have  been  already  described.) 

Fourth  class:  Movements  of  Heavy  Substances  when 
at  a  distance  from  the  Medium. —  The  instances  in  which 
heavy  bodies,  such  as  tables,  chairs,  sofas,  etc.,  have  been 
moved,  when  the  medium  has  not  been  touching  them,  arc 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     329 

very  numerous.  I  will  briefly  mention  a  few  of  the  most 
striking.  My  own  chair  has  been  twisted  partly  round, 
whilst  my  feet  were  off  the  floor.  A  chair  was  seen  by  all 
present  to  move  slowly  up  to  the  table  from  a  far  corner, 
when  all  were  watching  it.  On  another  occasion  an  arm- 
chair moved  to  where  we  were  sitting,  and  then  moved  slowly 
back  again  (a  distance  of  about  three  feet)  at  my  request. 
On  three  successive  evenings  a  small  table  moved  slowly 
across  the  room,  under  conditions  which  I  had  specially  pre- 
arranged, so  as  to  answer  any  objection  which  might  be 
raised  to  the  evidence.  I  have  had  several  repetitions  of 
the  experiment  considered  by  the  Committee  of  the  Dia- 
lectical Society  to  be  conclusive,  viz.,  the  movement  of  a 
heavy  table,  in  full  light,  the  chairs  turned  with  their  backs 
to  the  table,  about  a  foot  off,  and  each  person  kneeling  on  his 
chair,  with  hands  resting  over  the  back  of  the  chair,  but  not 
touching  the  table.  On  one  occasion  this  took  place  when  I 
was  moving  about  so  as  to  see  how  everyone  was  placed. 

Fifth  class:  The  Rising  of  Tables  and  Chairs  off  the 
Ground,  without  Contact  with  any  Person. 
(We  need  not  recur  to  these  matters.) 
Sixth  class  :  The  Levitation  of  Human  Beings. —  The 
most  striking  cases  of  levitation  which  I  have  witnessed  have 
been  with  Mr.  Home.  On  three  separate  occasions  have  I 
seen  him  raised  completely  from  the  floor  of  the  room. 
Once  sitting  in  an  easy-chair,  once  kneeling  on  his  chair, 
and  once  standing  up.  On  each  occasion  I  had  full  oppor- 
tunity of  watching  the  occurrence  as  it  was  taking  place. 

There  are  at  least  a  hundred  recorded  instances  of  Mr. 
Home's  rising  from  the  ground,  in  the  presence  of  as  many 
separate  persons,  and  I  have  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  three 
witnesses  to  the  most  striking  occurrence  of  this  kind  —  the 
Earl  of  Dunraven,  Lord  Lindsay,  and  Captain  C.  Wynne  — 
their  o\\ti  most  minute  accounts  of  what  took  place.  To  re- 
ject the  recorded  evidence  on  this  subject  is  to  reject  all 
human  testimony  whatever ;  for  no  fact  in  sacred  or  profane 
history  is  supported  by  a  stronger  array  of  proofs. 

Seventh  class:  Movement  of  Various  Small  Articles 
without  Contact  with  any  Person. —  (As  in  the  case  of  the 
sixth  class,  this  is  well  known  to  my  readers.) 


330  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Eighth  class  :  Luminous  A'ppearances. —  These,  being 
rather  faint,  generally  require  the  room  to  be  darkened.  I 
need  scarcely  remind  my  readers  again  that,  under  these 
circumstances,  I  have  taken  proper  precautions  to  avoid  be- 
ing imposed  upon  by  phosphorized  oil  or  other  means.  More- 
over, many  of  these  lights  are  such  as  I  have  tried  to  imitate 
artificially,  but  cannot. 

Under  the  strictest  test  conditions,  I  have  seen  a  solid 
self-luminous  body,  the  size  and  nearly  the  shape  of  a  tur- 
key's egg,  float  noiselessly  about  the  room,  at  one  time  higher 
than  any  one  present  could  reach  standing  on  tiptoe,  and 
then  gently  descend  to  the  floor.  It  was  visible  for  more 
than  ten  minutes,  and  before  it  faded  away  it  struck  the 
table  three  times  with  a  sound  like  that  of  a  hard  solid  body. 

During  this  time  the  medium  was  lying  back,  apparently     * 
insensible,  in  an  easy-chair. 

I  have  seen  luminous  points  of  light  darting  about  and 
settling  on  the  heads  of  different  persons ;  I  have  had  ques- 
tions answered  by  the  flashing  of  a  bright  light  a  desired 
number  of  times  in  front  of  my  face.  I  have  seen  sparks 
of  light  rising  from  the  table  to  the  ceiling,  and  again  fall- 
ing upon  the  table,  striking  it  with  an  audible  sound.  I 
have  had  an  alphabetic  communication  given  by  luminous 
flashes  occurring  before  me  in  the  air,  whilst  my  hand  was 
moving  about  amongst  them.  I  have  seen  a  luminous  cloud 
floating  upwards  to  a  picture.  Under  the  strictest  test  con- 
ditions, I  have  more  than  once  had  a  solid,  self-luminous, 
crystalline  body  placed  in  my  hand  by  a  hand  which  did 
not  belong  to  any  person  in  the  room.  In  the  light,  I  have 
seen  a  luminous  cloud  hover  over  a  heliotrope  on  a  side 
table,  break  a  sprig  off,  and  carry  it  to  a  lady ;  and  on  some 
occasions  I  have  seen  a  similar  luminous  cloud  visibly  con- 
dense to  the  form  of  a  hand  and  carry  small  objects  about. 

Ninth  class:  The  Appearance  of  Hands,  either  Self 
Luminous  or  Visible  by  Ordinary  Light. —  During  a  scanc( 
in  full  liglit  a  beautifully-formed  small  hand  rose  up  fron 
an  opening  in  a  dining-table  and  gave  me  a  flower;  it  ap 
peared  and  then  disappeared  three  times  at  intervals,  afford 
ing  me  ample  opportunity  of  satisfying  myself  that  it  wa 
as  real  in  appearance  as  my  own.     This  occurred  in  the  ligh 


EXPEKIME:N'TS  of  SIK  WM.  CROOKES     331 

|iin  mj  own  room,  whilst  I  was  holding  the  medium's  hands 
land  feet. 

1  On  another  occasion,  a  small  hand  and  arm,  like  a  baby's, 
appeared  playing  about  a  lady  who  was  sitting  next  to  me. 
It  then  patted  my  arm  and  pulled  my  coat  several  times. 
.  At  another  time,  a  finger  and  thumb  were  seen  to  pick 
the  petals  from  a  flower  in  Mr.  Home's  button-hole,  and  lay 
I  them  in  front  of  several  persons  who  were  sitting  near  him. 

A  hand  has  been  repeatedly  seen  by  myself  and  others 
playing  the  keys  of  an  accordion,  both  of  the  medium's  hands 
being  visible  at  the  same  time,  and  sometimes  being  held  by 
those  near  him. 

The  hands  and  fingers  do  not  always  appear  to  me  to 
be  solid  and  life-like.  Sometimes,  indeed,  they  present  more 
the  appearance  of  a  nebulous  cloud  partly  condensed  into  the 
form  of  a  hand.  This  is  not  equally  visible  to  all  present. 
Eor  instance,  a  flower  or  other  small  object  is  seen  to  move; 
,one  person  present  will  see  a  luminous  cloud  hovering  over 
it,  another  will  detect  a  nebulous-looking  hand,  whilst  others 
.will  see  nothing  at  all  but  the  moving  flower.  I  have  more 
,:than  once  seen,  first  an  object  move,  then  a  luminous  cloud 
appear  to  form  about  it,  and,  lastly,  the  cloud  condense  into 
shape  and  become  a  perfectly-formed  hand.  At  this  stage 
the  hand  is  visible  to  all  present.  It  is  not  always  a  mere 
form,  but  sometimes  appears  perfectly  life-like  and  graceful, 
the  fingers  moving,  and  the  flesh  apparently  as  human  as  that 
of  any  in  the  room.  At  the  wrist,  or  arm,  it  becomes  hazy, 
,and  fades  off  into  a  luminous  cloud. 

To  the  touch,  the  hand  sometimes  appears  icy-cold  and 
dead,  at  other  times,  warm  and  life-like,  grasping  my  own 
with  the  firai  pressure  of  an  old  friend. 

I  have  retained  one  of  these  hands  in  my  own,  firmly 
resolved  not  to  let  it  escape.  There  was  no  struggle  or  ef- 
fort made  to  get  loose,  but  it  gradually  seemed  to  resolve 
itself  into  vapor,  and  faded  in  that  manner  from  my  grasp. 
;  Tenth  class:  Direct  Writing. — (The  learned  chemist 
cites  some  remarkable  examples  obtained  by  him.  We  need 
^not  speak  of  them  in  this  book.) 

I     Eleventh  class  :     Phantom  Forms  and  Faces. —  These 
are  the  rarest  of  the  phenomena  I  have  witnessed.     The  con- 


333  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

ditions  requisite  for  their  appearance  appear  to  be  so  deli- 
cate, and  such  trifles  interfere  with  their  production,  that 
only  on  very  few  occasions  have  I  witnessed  them  under  sat- 
isfactory test  conditions.     I  will  mention  two  of  these  cases. 

In  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  during  a  seance  with  Mr. 
Home  at  my  house,  the  curtains  of  a  window  about  eight 
feet  from  Mr.  Home  were  seen  to  move.  A  dark,  shadowy, 
semi-transparent  form,  like  that  of  a  man,  was  then  seen 
by  all  present  standing  near  the  window,  waving  the  curtain 
with  his  hand.  As  we  looked,  the  form  faded  away,  and 
the  curtains  ceased  to  move. 

The  following  is  a  still  more  striking  instance.  As  in 
the  former  case,  Mr.  Home  was  the  medium.  A  phantom 
form  came  from  a  comer  of  the  room,  took  an  accordion  in 
its  hand,  and  then  glided  about  the  room  playing  the  instru- 
ment. The  form  was  visible  to  all  present  for  many  min- 
utes, Mr.  Home  also  being  seen  at  the  same  time.  Coming 
rather  close  to  a  lady  who  was  sitting  apart  from  the  rest 
of  the  company,  she  gave  a  slight  cry,  upon  which  it  van- 
ished. 

Twelfth  class:  Special  Instances  which  seem  to  point 
to  the  Agency  of  an  Exterior  Intelligence. —  It  has  already 
been  shown  that  the  phenomena  are  governed  by  an  intelli- 
gence. It  becomes  a  question  of  importance  as  to  the  source 
of  that  intelligence.  Is  it  the  intelligence  of  the  medium,  of 
any  of  the  other  persons  in  the  room,  or  is  it  an  exterior 
intelligence?  Without  wishing  at  present  to  speak  posi- 
tively on  this  point,  I  may  say  that  whilst  I  have  observed 
many  circumstances  which  appear  to  show  that  the  will  and 
intelligence  of  the  medium  have  much  to  do  with  the  phe- 
nomena, I  have  obsen^ed  some  circumstances  which  seem  con- 
clusively to  point  to  the  agency  of  an  outside  intelligence, 
not  belonging  to  any  human  being  in  the  room.  Space  does 
not  allow  me  to  give  here  all  the  arguments  which  can  be 
adduced  to  prove  these  points,  but  I  will  briefly  mention 
one  or  two  circumstances  out  of  many. 

I  have  been  present  wdien  several  phenomena  were  going 
on  at  the  same  time,  some  being  unknown  to  the  medium. 
I  have  been  with  IMiss  Fox  when  she  has  been  writing  a 
message  automatically  to  one  person  present,  whilst  a  message 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     333 

to  another  person  on  another  subject  was  being  given  alpha- 
betically by  means  of  "  raps,"  and  the  whole  time  she  was 
conversing  freely  with  a  third  person  on  a  subject  totally 
.different  from  either. 

Perhaps  a  m.ore  striking  instance  is  the  following : 
During  a  seance  with  Mr.  Home,  a  small  lath,  which  I 
have  before  mentioned,  moved  across  the  table  to  me,  in  the 
light,  and  delivered  a  message  to  me  by  tapping  my  hand,  I 
(repeating  the  alphabet,  and  the  lath  tapping  me  at  the  right 
;  letters.  The  other  end  of  the  lath  was  resting  on  the  table, 
some  distance  from  Mr.  Home's  hands. 

I  The  taps  were  so  sharp  and  clear,  and  the  lath  was  evi- 
idently  so  well  under  control  of  the  invisible  power  which 
I  was  governing  its  movements,  that  I  said,  ^'  Can  the  intelli- 
gence governing  the  motion  of  this  lath  change  the  character 
of  the  movements,  and  give  me  a  telegraphic  message  through 
the  Morse  alphabet  by  taps  on  my  hand?  "  (I  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  Morse  code  was  quite  unknown 
to  any  other  person  present,  and  it  was  only  imperfectly 
known  to  me. )  Immediately  I  said  this,  the  character  of  the 
I  taps  changed,  and  the  message  was  continued  in  the  way  I 
had  requested.  The  letters  were  given  too  rapidly  for  me 
to  do  more  than  catch  a  word  here  and  there,  and  conse- 
quently I  lost  the  message;  but  I  heard  sufficient  to  con- 
;vince  me  that  there  was  a  good  Morse  operator  at  the  other 
,end  of  the  line,  wherever  that  might  be. 

Another  instance.  A  lady  was  writing  automatically  by 
means  of  the  planchette.  I  was  trying  to  devise  a  means  of 
proving  that  what  she  wrote  was  not  due  to  "  unconscious 
cerebration."  The  planchette,  as  it  always  does,  insisted 
that,  although  it  was  moved  by  the  hand  and  the  arm  of  the 
lady,  the  intelligence  was  that  of  an  invisible  being  who  was 
.playing  on  her  brain  as  on  a  musical  instrument,  and  thus 
moving  her  muscles.  I  therefore  said  to  this  intelligence, 
"  Can  you  see  the  contents  of  this  room  ?  "  ^'  Yes,"  wrote 
the  planchette.  "  Can  you  see  to  read  this  newspaper  ? " 
said  I,  putting  my  finger  on  a  copy  of  the  Times,  which  was 
on  a  table  behind  me,  but  without  looking  at  it.  ^^  Yes," 
;Was  the  reply  of  the  planchette.  "Well,"  I  said,  "if  you 
,  can  see  that,  write  the  word  which  is  now  covered  by  my 


334  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

finger,  and  I  will  believe  you."  The  planchette  commenced 
to  move.  Slowly  and  with  great  difficulty  the  word  ''  how- 
ever "  was  written.  I  turned  round  and  saw  that  the  word 
"  however  "  was  covered  by  the  tip  of  my  finger. 

I  had  purposely  avoided  looking  at  the  newspaper  when 
I  tried  this  experiment,  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  lady, 
had  she  tried,  to  have  seen  any  of  the  printed  words,  for  she 
was  sitting  at  one  table,  and  the  paper  was  on  another  table 
behind,  my  body  intervening. 

ThirteiEnth  Class:  Miscellaneous  Occurrences  of  a 
Complex  Character. 

(Professor  Crookes  here  cites  two  examples  of  the  trans- 
ference of  matter  through  matter, —  a  bell  passing  from 
neighboring  room  into  that  in  which  the  seance  was  being 
held,  and  a  flower  separating  from  a  bouquet  and  passing 
through  the  table.) 

The  space  at  my  disposal  will  not  permit  me  to  give  more 
details  here ;  but  all  my  readers  must  appreciate,  as  I  do,  the 
importance  of  these  experiments  of  the  eminent  chemist.  I 
will  especially  call  attention  to  the  proofs  they  afford  of  the 
presence  of  a  mind  or  intelligence,  other  than  that  of  the 
experimenters;  to  the  formation  of  hands  and  spirit-forms; 
and  to  the  passage  of  matter  through  matter. 

These  experiments  date  from  the  years  1871  to  1873. 
During  the  last  mentioned  year,  a  new  medium,  endowed 
with  particularly  remarkable  powers,  appeared  in  London, 
namely.  Miss  Florence  Cook,  who  was  born  in  1856,  and 
was,  therefore,  seventeen  in  1873.  Since  the  preceding  year 
(1872),  she  had  often  seen  the  apparition  by  her  side  of  a 
young  girl.  This  spectral  form  had  taken  a  liking  to  her, 
and  told  her  she  was  called  Katie  King  in  the  other  world, 
and  had  been  a  lady  called  Annie  Morgan  during  one  of  her 
lives  on  earth.  Some  observers  told  marvellous  stories  oJ 
these  apparitions,  which  they  also  saw, —  among  them  bein^ 
William  Harrison,  Benjamin  Coleman,  Mr.  Luxmore,  Dr 
Sexton,  Dr.  Gully,  the  Prince  of  Sayn  Wittgenstein,  whc 


EXPERIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WK  CROOKES     335 

have  all  published  accounts  of  them  which  breathe  an 
air  of  sincere  belief.  Professor  Crookes  got  in  touch  with 
this  new  medium  in  December,  1873.  In  The  Spiritualist 
—  a  journal  edited  by  Mr.  Harrison,  at  whose  home  several 
sittings  had  taken  place  —  there  appeared  in  the  numbers 
for  Eebruary  and  March,  IS 74,  two  letters  from  Professor 
Crookes.     A  few  extracts  from  these  letters  here  follow: 

I  have  reason  to  know  that  the  power  at  work  in  these 
phenomena,  like  Love,  "  laughs  at  locksmiths." 

The  seance  of  which  you  speak  and  at  which  I  was  pres- 
^ent,  was  held  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Luxmore,  and  the  "  cab- 
inet" was  a  back  drawing-room  separated  from  the  front 
iroom  in  which  the  company  sat  by  a  curtain. 

The  usual  formality  of  searching  the  room  and  examining 
the  fastenings  having  been  gone  through.  Miss  Cook  entered 
the  cabinet. 

After  a  little  time  the  form  of  Katie  appeared  at  the 
side  of  the  curtain,  but  soon  retreated,  saying  her  medium 
was  not  well,  and  could  not  be  put  into  a  sufficiently  deep 
sleep  to  make  it  safe  for  her  to  be  left. 

I  was  sitting  within  a  few  feet  of  the  curtain  close 
behind  which  Miss  Cook  w^as  sitting,  and  I  could  frequently 
hear  her  moan  and  sob,  as  if  in  pain.  This  uneasiness  con- 
tinued at  intervals  nearly  the  whole  duration  of  the  seance, 
and  once,  when  the  form  of  Katie  was  standing  before  me  in 
the  room,  I  distinctly  heard  a  sohhirig,  moaning  sound,  iden- 
tical with  that  which  Miss  Cooh  had  been  mal'ing  at  intervals 
the  whole  time  of  the  seance,  come  from  beliind  the  curtain 
where  the  young  lady  was  supposed  to  be  sitting. 

I  admit  that  the  figure  was  startlingly  life-like  and  real, 
and,  as  far  as  I  could  see  in  the  somewhat  dim  light,  the 
features  resembled  those  of  Miss  Cook ;  but  still  the  positive 
evidence  of  one  of  my  own  senses  that  the  moan  came  from 
Miss  Cook  in  the  cabinet,  whilst  the  figure  was  outside,  is 
too  strong  to  be  upset  by  a  mere  inference  to  the  contrary, 
however  well  supported. 

Your  readers,  sir,  know  me,  and  will,  I  hope,  believe  that 
I  will  not  come  hastily  to  an  opinion,  or  ask  them  to  agree 
with  me  on  insufficient  evidence.     It  is  perhaps  expecting 


336  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

too  much,  to  think  that  the  little  incident  I  have  mentioned 

will  have  the  same  weight  with  them  that  it  had  with  me. 

But  this  I  do  beg  of  them  —  Let  those  who  are  inclined  to 

judge  Miss   Cook   harshly  suspend  their  judgment  until  I 

bring  forward  positive  evidence  which  I  think  will  be  suffix, 

cient  to  settle  the  question.  , 

Miss  Cook  is  now  devoting  herself  exclusively  to  a  series 

of  private  seances  with  me  and  one  or  two  friends.     The 

seances  will  probably  extend  over  some  months,  and  I  am 

promised  that  every  desirable  test  shall  be    given    to    me* 

:  These   seances   have   not   been  going  on  many  weeks,   but 

enough  has  taken  place  to  thoroughly  convince  me  of  the 

perfect  truth  and  honesty  of  Miss   Cook,   and  to  give  me 

every  reason  to  expect  that  the  promises  so  freely  made  to 

me  by  Katie  will  be  kept.  ^^  ^ 

•^  ^  William  Crookes. 

Here  is  the  second  letter  from  the  cautious  investigator : 

In  a  letter  which  I  wrote  to  this  journal  early  in  February 
last,  speaking  of  the  phenomena  of  spirit-forms  which  have 
appeared  through  Miss  Cook's  mediumship,  I  said,  "  Let 
those  who  are  inclined  to  judge  Miss  Cook  harshly  suspend 
their  judgment  until  I  bring  forward  positive  evidence ' 
which  I  think  will  be  sufficient  to  settle  the  question." 

In  that  letter  I  described  an  incident  which,  to  my  mind, 
went  very  far  towards  convincing  me  that  Katie  and  Mise 
Cook  were  two  separate  material  beings.  When  Katie  was 
outside  the  cabinet,  standing  before  me,  I  heard  a  moaning 
noise  from  Miss  Cook  in  the  cabinet.  I  am  happy  to  sa\ 
that  I  have  at  last  obtained  the  ^'  absolute  proof  "  to  whicL 
I  referred  in  the  above-quoted  letter. 

On  March  12th,  during  a  seance  here,  after  Katie  had 
been  walking  amongst  us  and  talking  for  some  time,  she 
retreated  behind  the  curtain  which  separated  my  laboratory 
where  the  company  w^as  sitting,  from  my  library  which  dici 
temporary  duty  as  a  cabinet.  In  a  minute  she  came  to  thf 
I  curtain  and  called  me  to  her,  saying,  "  Come  into  the  roon: 
•'  and  lift  my  medium's  head  up,  she  has  slipped  down.'j 
Katie  was  then  standing  before  me  clothed  in  her  usuaii 
white  robes  and  turban  head-dress.  I  immediately  walkecl 
into  the  library  up  to  Miss  Cook,  Katie  stepping  aside  tc 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     337 

How  me  to  pass.  I  found  Miss  Cook  had  slipped  partially 
ff  the  sofa,  and  her  head  was  hanging  in  a  very  awkward 
osition.  I  lifted  her  on  to  the  sofa,  and  in  so  doing  had 
uisfactory   evidence,   in   spite   of  the   darkness,   that  Miss 

uok  was  not  attired  in  the  "  Katie  "  costume,  but  had  on 
er  ordinary  black  velvet  dress,  and  was  in  a  deep  trance. 
H^ot  more  than  three  seconds  elapsed  between  my  seeing  the 
^hite-robed  Katie  standing  before  me  and  my  raising  Miss 
'ook  onto  the  sofa  from  the  position  into  which  she  had 
alien. 

On  returning  to  my  post  of  observation  by  the  curtain, 
Vatie  again  appeared,  and  said  she  thought  she  would  be 
ble  to  show  herself  and  her  medium  to  me  at  the  same  time. 
''he  gas  was  then  turned  out  and  she  asked  for  my  phos- 
horus  lamp.  After  exhibiting  herself  by  it  for  some  sec- 
nds,  she  handed  it  back  to  me,  saying,  "  Now  come  in  and 
36  my  medium.''  I  closely  followed  her  into  the  library, 
nd  by  the  light  of  my  lamp  saw  Miss  Cook  lying  on  the 
:ofa  just  as  I  had  left  her.  I  looked  round  for  Katie,  but 
he  had  disappeared.     I  called  her,  but  there  was  no  answer. 

On  resuming  my  place,  Katie  soon  reappeared,  and  told 
le  that  she  had  been  standing  close  to  Miss  Cook  all  the 
ime.  She  then  asked  if  she  might  try  an  experiment  her- 
elf,  and  taking  the  phosphorus  lamp  from  me  she  passed 
.•ehind  the  curtain,  asking  me  not  to  look  in  for  the  present. 
n  a  few  minutes  she  handed  the  lamp  back  to  me,  saying 
jhe  could  not  succeed,  as  she  had  used  up  all  the  power,  but 
7ould  try  again  another  time.  My  eldest  son,  a  lad  of  four- 
een,  who  was  sitting  opposite  me,  in  such  a  position  that  he 
ould  see  behind  the  curtain,  tells  me  he  distinctly  saw  the 
)hosphorus  lamp  apparently  floating  about  in  space  over 
vliss  Cook,  illuminating  her  as  she  lay  motionless  on  the 
ofa,  but  he  could  not  see  anyone  holding  the  lamp. 

I  pass  on  to  a  seance  held  last  night  at  Hackney.  Katie 
,iever  appeared  to  greater  perfection,  and  for  nearly  two 
lours  she  walked  about  the  room,  conversing  familiarly  with 
hose  present.  On  several  occasions  she  took  my  arm  when 
valking,  and  the  impression  conveyed  to  my  mind  that  it 
vas  a  living  woman  by  my  side,  instead  of  a  visitor  from 
.he  other  world,  was  so  strong  that  the  temptation  to  repeat 
I  recent  celebrated  experiment  became  almost  irresistible. 


338  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Feeling,  however,  that  if  I  had  not  a  spirit,  I  had  at  all 
events  a  lady  close  to  me,  I  asked  her  permission  to  clasp 
her  in  nij  arms,  so  as  to  be  able  to  verify  the  interesting 
observations  which  a  bold  experimentalist  has  recently  some- 
what verbosely  recorded.  Permission  was  graciously  given, 
and  I  accordingly  did  —  well,  as  any  gentleman  would  dc 
under  the  circumstances.  Mr.  Volckman  will  be  pleased  tc 
know  that  I  can  corroborate  his  statement  that  the  '^  ghost " 
(not  ^'  struggling "  however)  was  as  material  a  being  as 
Miss  Cook  herself. 

Katie  now  said  she  thought  she  would  be  able  this  time 
to  show  herself  and  Miss  Cook  together.  I  was  to  turn  the 
gas  out,  and  then  come  with  my  phosphorus  lamp  into  the 
room  now  used  as  a  cabinet.  This  I  did,  having  previouslj 
asked  a  friend  who  was  skillful  at  shorthand  to  take  down 
any  statement  I  might  make  when  in  the  cabinet,  knowino 
the  importance  attaching  to  first  impressions,  and  not  wish- 
ing to  leave  more  to  memory  than  necessary.  His  notes  are 
now  before  me. 

I  went  cautiously  into  the  room,  it  being  dark,  and  feh 
about  for  Miss  Cook.     I  found  her  crouching  on  the  floor. 

Kneeling  down,  I  let  air  enter  the  lamp,  and  by  its  light 
I  saw  the  young  lady  dressed  in  black  velvet,  as  she  had  beer 
in  the  early  part  of  the  evening,  and  to  all  appearance  per 
fectly  senseless;  she  did  not  move  when  I  took  her  banc 
and  held  the  light  quite  close  to  her  face,  but  continuec 
quietly  breathing. 

Raising  the  lamp,  I  looked  around  and  saw  Katie  stand 
ing  close  behind  Miss  Cook.  She  was  robed  in  flowing 
white  drapery  as  we  had  seen  her  previously  during  th( 
seance.  Holding  one  of  Miss  Cook's  hands  in  mine,  anc 
still  kneeling,  I  passed  the  lamp  up  and  down  so  as  to  il 
luminate  Katie's  whole  figure,  and  satisfy  myself  thoroughb 
that  I  was  really  looking  at  the  veritable  Katie  whom  I  hac 
clasped  in  my  arms  a  few  minutes  before,  and  not  at  th« 
phantasm  of  a  disordered  brain.  She  did  not  speak,  bu 
moved  her  head  and  smiled  in  recognition.  Three  separate 
times  did  I  carefully  examine  Miss  Cook  crouching  befor< 
me,  to  be  sure  that  the  hand  I  held  was  that  of  a  livin^^ 
woman,  and  three  separate  times  did  I  turn  the  lamp  t< 


EXPEEIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     339 

(Katie  and  examine  her  with  steadfast  scrutiny,  until  I  had 
Ino  doubt  whatever  of  her  objective  reality.  At  last  Miss 
.Cook  moved  slightly,  and  Katie  instantly  motioned  me  to 
\go  away.  I  went  to  another  part  of  the  cabinet,  and  then 
'.ceased  to  see  Katie,  but  did  not  leave  the  room  till  Miss 
Cook  woke  up,  and  two  of  the  visitors  came  in  with  a  light. 

Before  concluding  this  article  I  wish  to  give  some  of  the 
'points  of  difference  which  I  have  observed  between  Miss 
iCook  and  Katie.  Katie's  height  varies;  in  my  house  I 
have  seen  her  six  inches  taller  than  Miss  Cook.  Last  night, 
with  bare  feet,  and  not  "  tiptoeing,"  she  was  four-and-a-half 
inches  taller  than  Miss  Cook.  Katie's  neck  was  bare  last 
night ;  the  skin  was  perfectly  smooth  both  to  touch  and  sight, 
whilst  on  Miss  Cook's  neck  is  a  large  blister,  which  under 
similar  circumstances  is  distinctly  visible  and  rough  to  the 
touch.  Katie's  ears  are  unpierced,  whilst  Miss  Cook  habit- 
ually wears  earrings.  Katie's  complexion  is  very  fair,  while 
that  of  Miss  Cook  is  very  dark.  Katie's  fingers  are  much 
longer  than  Miss  Cook's,  and  her  face  is  also  larger.  In 
'manners  and  ways  of  expression  there  are  also  many  decided 
differences. 

After  the  observations  summarized  in  these  two  letters 
Professor  Crookes  continued  his  experiments  at  his  own 
home,  for  a  space  of  two  months.  The  result  of  all  is  em- 
bodied in  the  following  statements  made  by  Crookes  him- 
self: 

During  the  week  before  Katie  took  her  departure  she 
gave  seances  at  my  house  almost  nightly,  to  enable  me  to 
photograph  her  by  artificial  light.  Five  complete  sets  of 
photographic  apparatus  were  accordingly  fitted  up  for  the 
purpose,  consisting  of  five  cameras,  one  of  the  whole-plate 
size,  one  half-plate,  one  quarter-plate,  and  two  binocular 
'stereoscopic  cameras,  which  were  all  brought  to  bear  upon 
Katie  at  the  same  time  on  each  occasion  on  which  she  stood 
for  her  portrait.  Five  sensitizing  and  five  fixing  baths  were 
used,  and  plenty  of  plates  were  cleaned  ready  for  use  in 
advance,  so  that  there  might  be  no  hitch  or  delay  during 


340  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

the  photographic  operations,  which  were  perforraed  by  my- 
self, aided  by  one  assistant. 

My  library  was  used  as  a  dark  cabinet.     It  has  folding 
doors  opening  into  the  laboratory;  one  of  these  doors  was 
taken  off  its  hinges,  and  a  curtain  suspended  in  its  place  to 
enable  Katie  to  pass  in  and  out  easily.     Those  of  our  friends 
who  were  present  w^ere  seated  in  the  laboratory  facing  the 
curtain,  and  the  cameras  were  placed  a  little  behind  them, 
ready  to  photograph  Katie  when  she  came  outside,  and  to 
photograph  anything  also  inside  the  cabinet,  whenever  the 
curtain  was  withdrawn  for  the  purpose.     Each  evening  there 
were  three  or  four  exposures  of  plates  in  the  five  cameras,  | 
giving  at  least  fifteen  separate  pictures  at  each  seance ;  some  i 
of  these  were  spoilt  in  the  developing,  and  some  in  regiilat-j 
ing  the  amount  of  light.     Altogether,  I  have  forty-four  nega- 
tives, some  inferior,  some  indifferent,  and  some  excellent. 

Katie  instructed  all  the  sitters  but  myself  to  keep  their 
seats  and  to  keep  conditions ;  but  for  some  time  past  she  has 
given  me  permission  to  do  what  I  liked  —  to  touch  her,  and 
to  enter  and  leave  the  cabinet  almost  whenever  I  pleased.  I 
have  frequently  followed  her  into  the  cabinet,  and  have 
sometimes  seen  her  and  her  medium  together,  but  most  gen- 
erally I  have  found  nobody  but  the  entranced  medium  lying 
on  the  floor,  Katie  and  her  white  robes  having  instantane- 
ously disappeared. 

During  the  last  six  months  Miss  Cook  has  been  a  fre- 
quent visitor  at  my  house,  remaining  sometimes  a  week  at 
a  time.  She  brings  nothing  with  her  but  a  little  hand-bag, 
not  locked.  During  the  day  she  is  constantly  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Mrs.  Crookes,  myself,  or  some  other  member  of  my 
family,  and,  not  sleeping  by  herself,  there  is  absolutely  no 
opportunity  for  any  preparation  even  of  a  less  elaborate 
character  than  would  be  required  for  enacting  Katie  King. 
I  prepare  and  arrange  my  library  myself  as  the  dark  cabinet, 
and  usually,  after  Miss  Cook  has  been  dining  and  convers- 
ing with  us,  and  scarcely  out  of  our  sight  for  a  minute,  she 
walks  directly  into  the  cabinet,  and  I,  at  her  request,  lock 
its  second  door,  and  keep  possession  of  the  key  all  through 
the  seance.  The  gas  is  then  turned  out,  and  Miss  Cook  is 
left  in  darkness. 


EXPEKIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WK  CROOKES     341 

On  entering  the  cabinet,  Miss  Cook  lies  doAvn  upon  the 
loor,  with  her  head  on  a  pillow,  and  is  soon  entranced. 
.During  the  photographic  seance,  Katie  muffled  her  medium's 
lead  up  in  a  shawl  to  prevent  the  light  falling  upon  her 
-ace.  I  frequently  drew  the  curtain  on  one  side  when 
Katie  was  standing  near,  and  it  was  a  common  thing  for 
i:he  seven  or  eight  of  us  in  the  laboratory  to  see  Miss  Cook 
md  Katie  at  the  same  time,  under  the  full  blaze  of  the 
;^lectric  light.  We  did  not  on  these  occasions  actually  see 
i;he  face  of  the  medium  because  of  the  shawl,  but  we  saw 
iier  hands  and  feet;  we  saw  her  move  uneasily  under  the 
nfluence  of  the  intense  light,  and  we  heard  her  moan  occa- 
•  ionally.  I  have  one  photograph  of  the  two  together,  but 
iJatie  is  seated  in  front  of  Miss  Cook's  head. 

During  the  time  I  took  an  active  part  in  these  seances 
latie's  confidence  in  me  gradually  grew,  until  she  refused 
o  give  a  seance  unless  I  took  charge  of  the  arrangements. 
iShe  said  she  always  wanted  me  to  keep  close  to  her,  and 
lear  the  cabinet,  and  I  found  that  after  this  confidence  was 
istablished,  and  she  was  satisfied  I  would  not  break  any 
oromise  I  might  make  to  her,  the  phenomena  increased 
^^eatly  in  power,  and  tests  w^re  freely  given  that  would 
lave  been  unobtainable  had  I  approached  the  subject  in 
mother  manner.  She  often  consulted  me  about  persons  pres- 
!nt  at  the  seances,  and  where  they  should  be  placed,  for  of 
ate  she  had  become  very  nervous,  in  consequence  of  certain 
ill-advised  suggestions  that  force  should  be  employed  as  an 
idjunct  to  more  scientific  modes  of  research. 
■  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  pictures  is  one  in  which 
,.  am  standing  by  the  side  of  Katie;  she  has  her  bare  foot 
ipon  a  particular  part  of  the  floor.  Afterwards  I  dressed 
.^iss  Cook  like  Katie,  placed  her  and  myself  in  exactly  the 
ame  position,  and  we  were  photographed  by  the  same  cam- 
eras, placed  exactly  as  in  the  other  experiment,  and  illum- 
nated  by  the  same  light.  When  these  two  pictures  are 
)laced  over  each  other,  the  two  photographs  of  myself  co- 
ncide  exactly  as  regards  stature,  etc.,  but  Katie  is  half  a 
:iead  taller  than  Miss  Cook,  and  looks  a  big  woman  in  com- 
)arison  with  her.  In  the  breadth  of  her  face,  in  many  of 
he  pictures,  she  differs  essentially  in  size  from  her  medium, 


342  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

and  the  photographs  show  several  other  points  of  difference. 
But  photography  is  as  inadequate  to  depict  the  perfect 
beauty  of  Katie's  face  as  words  are  powerless  to  describe 
her  charms  of  manner.  Photography  may,  indeed,  give  a 
map  of  her  countenance;  but  how  can  it  reproduce  the  bril- 
liant purity  of  her  complexion,  or  the  ever-varying  expres- 
sion of  her  most  mobile  features,  now  overshadowed  with 
sadness  when  relating  some  of  the  bitter  experiences  of  her 
past  life,  now  smiling  with  all  the  innocence  of  happy  girl- 
hood when  she  had  collected  my  children  round  her  and  was 
amusing  them  by  recounting  anecdotes  of  her  adventures  in 
India  ? 

"  Eound  her  she  made  an  atmosphere  of  life; 

The  very  air  seemed  lighter  from  her  eyes. 
They  were  so  soft  and  beautiful,  and  rife 

With  all  we  can  imagine  of  the  skies; 
Her  overpowering  presence  made  you  feel 

It  would  not  be  idolatry  to  kneel." 

Having  seen  so  much  of  Katie  lately,  when  she  has  been 
illuminated  by  the  electric  light,  I  am  enabled  to  add  to  the 
points  of  difference  between  her  and  her  medium  which  I 
mentioned  in  a  former  article.  I  have  the  most  absolute 
certainty  that  Miss  Cook  and  Katie  are  two  separate  indi- 
viduals so  far  as  their  bodies  are  concerned.  Several  little 
marks  on  Miss  Cook's  face  are  absent  on  Katie's.  Miss 
Cook's  hair  is  so  dark  a  brov^n  as  almost  to  appear  black; 
a  lock  of  Katie's,  which  is  now  before  me,  and  which  she 
allowed  me  to  cut  from  her  luxuriant  tresses,  having  first 
traced  it  up  to  the  scalp  and  satisfied  myself  that  it  actually 
grew  there,  is  a  rich  golden  auburn. 

One  evening  I  timed  Katie's  pulse.  It  beat  steadily  at 
75,  whilst  Miss  Cook's  pulse  a  little  time  after  was  going 
at  its  usual  rate  of  90.  On  applying  my  ear  to  Katie's 
chest  I  could  hear  a  heart  beating  rhythmically  inside,  and 
pulsating  even  more  steadily  than  did  Miss  Cook's  heart 
when  she  allowed  me  to  try  a  similar  experiment  after  th€ 
seance.  Tested  in  the  same  way,  Katie's  lungs  were  found 
to  be  sounder  than  her  medium's,  for  at  the  time  I  tried 
my  experiment  Miss  Cook  was  under  medical  treatment  foi 
a  severe  cough. 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     343 

H  This  mysterious  being,  this  strange  Katie  King,  had  an- 
nounced, from  the  time  of  her  first  appearances,  that  she 
would  be  able  to  show  herself  in  this  way  for  only  three  years. 
The  end  of  this  period  was  now  approaching. 

When  the  time  came  for  Katie  to  take  her  farewell  I  asked 
that  she  would  let  me  see  the  last  of  her.  Accordingly  when 
she  had  called  each  of  the  company  up  to  her  and  had  spoken 
to  them  a  few  words  in  private,  she  gave  some  general  di- 
rections for  the  future  guidance  and  protection  of  Miss  Cook. 
From  these,  which  were  taken  do^\Tl  in  shorthand,  I  quote  the 
following :  '^  Mr.  Crookes  has  done  very  well  throughout, 
and  I  leave  Florrie  with  the  greatest  confidence  in  his  hands, 
feeling  perfectly  sure  he  will  not  abuse  the  trust  I  place  in 
him.  He  can  act  in  any  emergency  better  than  I  can  my- 
self, for  he  has  more  strength."  Having  concluded  her  di- 
rections Katie  invited  me  into  the  cabinet  with  her,  and 
allowed  me  to  remain  there  to  the  end. 

After  closing  the  curtain  she  conversed  with  me  for  some 

'time,  and  then  walked  across  the  room  to  where  Miss  Cook 
was  lying  senseless  on  the  floor.     Stooping  over  her,  Katie 

'  touched  her,  and  said :     "  Wake  up,  Florrie,  wake  up  !     I 
must  leave  you  now." 

Miss  Cook  then  woke  and  tearfully  entreated  Katie  to 

'stay  a  little  time  longer.     "My  dear,  I  can't;  my  work  is 

'  done.  God  bless  you,"  Katie  replied,  and  tlien  continued 
speaking  to  Miss  Cook.  For  several  minutes  the  two  were 
conversing  with  each  other,  till  at  last  Miss  Cook's  tears 
prevented  her  speaking.  Following  Katie's  instructions  I 
then  came  forward  to  support  Miss  Cook,  who  was  falling 
■  onto  the  floor,  sobbing  hysterically.  I  looked  round,  but 
•  '■  the  white-robed  Katie   had  gone.     As  soon  as   Miss   Cook 

:  was  sufficiently  calmed,  a  light  was  procured  and  I  led  her 

'  out  of  the  cabinet. 

One  word  more  about  this  astonishing  phenomenon.     The 
medium  Home,  employed,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  first  ex- 
,  periments  of  Professor  Crookes,  gave  it  to  me  as  his  per- 
sonal opinion  that  Miss  Cook  was  only  a  skilful  trickster, 


344  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

and  had  shamefully  deceived  the  eminent  scientist,  and  as 
for  mediums,  why  there  was  only  one  absolutely  trustworthy 
and  that  was  himself,  Daniel  Dunglas  Home!  He  even 
added  that  the  fiance  of  Miss  Cook  had  given  striking  proofs 
of  her  extreme  cantankerousness ! 

He  who  has  observed  at  close  hand  the  rivalries  of  me- 
diums —  which  are  as  strongly  marked  as  those  of  doctors, 
actors,  musicians  and  women  —  will  not,  it  seems  to  me, 
fijid  in  this  talk  of  Home  any  intrinsic  value  whatever.  But 
I  must  confess  that  this  matter  of  Katie  King  is  really  so 
extraordinary  that  I  am  forced  to  try  every  possible  ex- 
planation before  admitting  its  truth.  This  is  also  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Crookes  himself. 

In  order  to  convince  myself  (says  he)  I  was  constantly 
on  my  gaiard,  and  Miss  Cook  readily  assisted  me  in  all  my 
investigations.  Every  test  that  I  have  proposed  she  has  at 
once  agTced  to  submit  to  ^vith  the  utmost  willingTiess ;  she 
is  open  and  straightforward  in  speech,  and  I  have  never 
seen  anything  approaching  the  slightest  symptom  of  a  wish 
to  deceive.  Indeed,  I  do  not  believe  she  could  carry  on  a 
deception  if  she  were  to  try,  and  if  she  did  she  would  cer- 
tainly be  found  out  very  quickly,  for  such  a  line  of  action  is 
altogether  foreign  to  her  nature.  And  to  imagine  that  an; 
innocent  schoolgirl  of  fifteen  would  be  able  to  conceive  and, 
then  successfully  carry  out  for  three  years  so  gigantic  an 
imposture  as  this,  and  in  that  time  would  submit  to  any  test 
which  might  be  imposed  upon  her,  would  bear  the  strictest 
scrutiny,  would  be  willing  to  be  searched  at  any  time,  eithei 
before  or  after  a  seance,  and  would  meet  with  even  bettei: 
success  in  my  o^vn  house  than  at  that  of  her  parents,  knowing 
that  she  visited  me  with  the  express  object  of  submitting  t( 
strict  scientific  tests  —  to  imagine,  I  say,  the  Katie  Kim 
of  the  last  three  years  to  be  the  result  of  imposture  doe; 
more  violence  to  one's  reason  and  common  sense  than  t( 
believe  her  to  be  what  she  herself  affirms. 

It  will  perhaps  not  be  superfluous  to  round  out  these  ac 


EXPEEIMENTS  OF  SIK  WM.  CROOKES     345 

•counts  of  William  Crookes  by  giving  an  extract  from  the 
[journal  The  Spiritualist  of  the  29th  of  May,  1874. 

Erom  the  beginning  of  the  mediumship  of  Miss  Cook,  the 

j spirit  Katie  King  or  Annie  Morgan,  who  had  produced  the 

greater  portion  of  the  physical  part  of  the  manifestations, 

I' had  announced  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  be  with  her 

■ '  medium  longer  than  three  years,  and  that  after  that  time 

1  she  would  say  good-bye  to  her  forever. 

11     The  end  of  that  period  came  last  Thursday;  but  before 

'I leaving    her    medium,    she    gave    her    friends    three    more 

seances. 

The  last  took  place  on  Thursday,  the  21st  of  May,  1874. 

Among  the  spectators  was  Prof.  William  Crookes. 

[{     At  7.23  in  the  evening  Professor  Crookes  led  Miss  Cook 

into  the  dark  cabinet,  where  she  lay  do^\Ti  upon  the  floor, 

:her  head  resting  on  a  cushion.     At  7.28  Katie  spoke  for 

'the  first  time,  and  at  7.30  she  showed  herself  outside  of  the 

'curtain  in  her  full  form.     She  was  dressed  in  white,  short 

'sleeves  and  bare  neck.     She  had  long  light  auburn  hair  of  a 

'rich  tint,  falling  in  curls  on  each  side  of  her  head  and  do^vn 

'her  back  to  her  waist.     She  wore  a  long  white  veil  Avhich 

■was  not  drawn  down  over  her  face  more  than  once  or  twice 

['during  the  sitting. 

1^     The  medium  T\^re  a  light  blue  merino  robe.     During  al- 
'  most  the  whole  of  the  seance,  Katie  remained  standing  before 
us.     The  curtain  of  the  cabinet  was  drawn  aside  and  all 
'could  distinctly  see  the  medium  lying  asleep,  having  her 
'  face  covered  wdth  a  red  shawl,  in  order  to  shield  it  from  the 
light.     Katie  spoke  of  her  approaching  departure  and  ac- 
cepted a  bouquet  which  Mr.  Tapp  had  brought  her,  as  well 
■  as  a  bunch  of  lilies  offered  by  Mr.  Crookes.     She  asked  Mr. 
'■  Tapp  to  untie  the  bouquet  and  to  put  the  flowers  before  her 
on  the  floor.     She  then  sat  down  in  the  Turkish  style  and 
asked  all  to  sit  around  her  in  the  same  way.     Then  she  di- 
'■  vided  the  flowers  and  gave  to  each  a  little  bouquet  tied  up 
with  a  blue  ribbon. 

She  then  wrote  letters  to  some  of  her  friends,  signing 
them  ^'  Annie  Owen  Morgan,"  saying  that  was  her  true 
name  during  her  life  on  earth.     She  also  wrote  a  letter  to 


34'®    MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

her  medium,  and  chose  for  her  a  rosebud  as  a  good-bye  gift. 
Katie  then  took  the  scissors,  cut  off  a  lock  of  her  hair  and 
gave  some  of  it  to  all  of  us.  She  then  took  Mr.  Crookes' 
hand  and  made  the  tour  of  the  room,  pressing  the  hand  of 
each  of  us  in  turn.  She  then  sat  down  again  and  cut  off 
several  pieces  of  her  robe  and  of  her  veil  for  remembrances. 
Seeing  such  holes  in  her  robe  (she  being  seated  all  this  while 
between  Mr.  Crookes  and  Mr.  Tapp),  some  one  asked  her 
if  she  could  repair  the  damage,  as  she  had  done  on  previous 
occasions.  She  then  held  the  cut  part  of  the  robe  in  the 
light,  gave  one  rap  upon  it,  and  instantly  that  part  was 
whole  and  unblemished  as  before.  Those  near  her  touched 
and  examined  the  stuff,  with  her  permission.  They  affirmed 
that  there  was  neither  hole  nor  seam,  nor  anything  added 
at  the  very  place  where  an  instant  before  they  had  seen 
holes  several  inches  in  diameter. 

She  next  gave  her  last  instructions  to  Mr.  Crookes.  Then, 
seeming  fatigued,  she  added  that  her  force  w^as  disappearing, 
and  repeated  her  good-bye  to  everyone  in  the  most  affection- 
ate manner.  All  present  thanked  her  for  the  wonderful 
manifestations  which  she  had  given  them. 

While  she  was  directing  tow^ard  her  friends  a  last  grave 
and  pensive  look,  she  let  fall  the  curtain,  and  it  hid  her 
from  our  view.  We  heard  her  waking  up  the  medium,  who 
begged  her  with  tears  to  remain  a  little  longer.  But  Katie 
said,  "  It  is  impossible,  my  dear ;  my  mission  is  accom- 
plished ;  God  bless  you !  "  And  we  heard  the  sound  of  a 
kiss.  The  medium  then  came  out  among  us  wholly  ex- 
hausted and  in  a  state  of  deep  dismay. 

Such  are  the  experiments  of  Sir  William  Crookes.  I  have 
restricted  myself  to  relating  his  own  personal  observations, 
as  set  forth  by  himself.  The  story  of  Katie  King  is  truly 
one  of  the  most  mysterious,  the  most  incredible,  to  be  found 
in  the  whole  history  of  Spiritualistic  research,  and  is  at  the 
same  time,  one  of  the  cases  that  have  been  most  scrupulously 
studied  by  the  experimental  method,  including  photography. 

The  medium,  Miss  Florence  Cook,  married  in  1874'  Mr. 


EXPERIMEXTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES  347 
Elgie  Corner,  and,  from  that  time  on,  her  contributions  to 
psychical  research  almost  ceased.  I  have  several  times  been 
assured  that  she  also  had  been  caught  in  the  very  act  of 
cheating.  (Always  that  feminine  hysteria!)  But  the  in- 
vestigations of  Crookes  were  conducted  with  such  care  and 
competence,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  refuse  our  credence. 
Besides,  this  scientist  was  not  the  only  one  to  study  the 
mediumship  of  Florence  Cook.  Among  other  works  that 
may  be  consulted  on  this  subject  is  one  containing  a  large 
number  of  proofs  and  testimonies,  as  well  as  several  photo- 
graphs (alluded  to  above).* 

These  recorded  cases,  or  testimonies,  form  a  collection  of 
records,  the  study  of  which  is  most  instructive.  The  study 
of  the  great  chemist  surpass  the  rest,  to  be  sure,  but  it  does 
not  diminish  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  others.  All  the  ob- 
servations agree  and  mutually  confirm  each  other. 

As  to  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena,  Crookes  thinks 
that  we  cannot  discover  it.  Was  this  apparition  what  it 
claimed  to  be  ?     There  is  nothing  to  prove  it. 

Might  it  not  be  a  double  of  the  medium,  a  product  of  her 
psychic  force  ? 

The  learned  chemist  did  not  change  his  opinion  (as  has 
been  claimed)  about  the  authenticity  of  the  phenomena 
studied  by  him.  In  an  address  delivered  at  a  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  held 
at  Bristol  in  1898,  and  of  which  he  was  President,  he  ex- 
pressed himself  as  follows : 

Xo  incident  in  my  scientific  career  is  more  widely  kno^\Ti 
than  the  part  I  took  many  years  ago  in  certain  psychic  re- 
searches. Thirty  years  have  passed  since  I  published  an 
account  of  experiments  tending  to  show  that  outside  our 

*  Katie  King,  The  Story  of  her  Appearances.  Paris,  Leymarie,  1899. 
I  thought  I  would  not  reproduce  these  photographs  here,  because  they 
did  not  seem  to  me  to  have  come  from  Mr.  Crookes  himself.  Florence 
Cook  died  in  London  on  the  2d  of  April,  1904. 


■ 


348  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

scientmc  knowledge  there  exists  a  Force  exercised  by  intelli- 
gence differing  from  the  ordinary  intelligence  common  to 
mortals.  This  fact  in  my  life  is,  of  course,  well  understood 
by  those  who  honored  me  with  the  invitation  to  become  your 
President.  Perhaps  among  my  audience  some  may  feel 
curious  as  to  whether  I  shall  speak  out  or  be  silent.  I  elect 
to  speak,  although  briefly. 

To  enter  at  length  on  a  still  debatable  subject  would  be 
to  insist  on  a  topic  which, —  as  Wallace,  Lodge  and  Barrett 
have  already  shown, —  though  not  unfitted  for  discussion  at 
these  meetings,  does  not  yet  enlist  the  interest  of  the  ma- 
jority of  my  scientific  brethren.  To  ignore  the  subject  would 
be  an  act  of  cowardice,  an  act  of  cowardice  I  feel  no  tempta- 
tion to  commit. 

To  stop  short  in  any  research  that  bids  fair  to  widen  the 
gates  of  knowledge,  to  recoil  from  fear  of  difficulty  or  ad- 
verse criticism,  is  to  bring  reproach  on  science.  There  is 
nothing  for  the  investigator  to  do  but  to  go  straight  on,  "  to 
explore  up  and  down,  inch  by  inch,  with  the  taper,  his  rea- 
son;" to  follow  the  light  wherever  it  may  lead,  even  should 
it  at  times  resemble  a  will-o'-the  wisp. 

I  have  nothing  to  retract.  I  adhere  to  my  already  pub- 
lished statements.  Indeed,  I  might  add  much  thereto.  I 
regret  only  a  certain  crudity  in  those  early  expositions,  which, 
no  doubt  justly,  militated  against  their  acceptance  by  the 
scientific  world.  My  own  knowledge  at  that  time  scarcely 
extended  beyond  the  fact  that  certain  phenomena  new  to 
science  had  assuredly  occurred,  and  were  attested  by  my  o^vn 
sober  senses,  and,  better  still,  by  automatic  record. 

I  was  like  some  two-dimensional  being  who  might  stand 
at  the  singular  point  of  a  Riemann's  surface,  and  thus  find 
himself  in  infinitesimal  and  inexplicable  contact  with  a  plane 
of  existence  not  his  own. 

I  think  I  see  a  little  farther  now.  I  have  glimpses  of 
something  like  coherence  among  the  strange  elusive  phe- 
nomena ;  of  something  like  continuity  between  those  unex- 
plained forces  and  laws  already  known.  This  advance  is 
largely  due  to  the  labors  of  another  Association  of  which  I 
have  also  this  year  the  honor  to  be  President  —  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research.     And  were  I  now  introducing  for 


EXPERIMENTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     349 

,the  first  time  these  inquiries  to  the  world  of  science  I  should 
choose  a  starting  point  different  from  that  of  old.  It  would 
be  well  to  begin  with  telepathy;  with  the  fundamental  law, 
as  I  believe  it  to  be,  that  thoughts  and  images  may  be  trans- 
ferred from  one  mind  to  another  without  the  agency  of  the 
recognized  organs  of  sense,  that  knowledge  may  enter  the 
human  mind  without  being  communicated  in  any  hitherto 
knoAvn  or  recognized  ways. 

Although  the  inquiry  has  elicited  important  facts  with 
reference  to  the  mind,  it  has  not  yet  reached  the  scientific 
stage  of  certainty  which  would  entitle  it  to  be  usefully 
brought  before  one  of  our  sections.  I  will  therefore  con- 
fine myself  to  pointing  out  the  direction  in  which  scientific 
investigation  can  legitimately  advance. 

If  telepathy  take  place  we  have  two  physical  facts  —  the 
physical  change  in  the  brain  of  A,  the  suggester,  and  the 
analogous  physical  change  in  the  brain  of  B,  the  recipient 
of  the  suggestion.  Between  these  two  physical  events  there 
must  exist  a  train  of  physical  causes.  Whenever  the  con- 
necting sequence  of  intermediate  causes  begins  to  be  revealed 
the  inquiry  will  then  come  within  the  range  of  one  of  the 
sections  of  the  British  Association.  Such  a  sequence  can 
only  occur  through  an  intervening  medium.  All  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  universe  are  presumably  in  some  way  con- 
tinous,  and  it  is  unscientific  to  call  in  the  aid  of  mysterious 
agencies  when  with  every  fresh  advance  in  knowledge  it  is 
shown  that  ether  vibrations  have  powers  and  attributes 
abundantly  equal  to  any  demand  —  even  to  the  transmission 
of  thought.  It  is  supposed  by  some  physiologists  that  the 
essential  cells  of  nerves  do  not  actually  touch,  but  are  sep- 
arated by  a  narrow  gap  which  widens  in  sleep  while  it  nar- 
rows almost  to  extinction  during  mental  activity.  This  con- 
dition is  so  singuarly  like  that  of  a  Branly  or  Lodge  coherer 
as  to  suggest  a  further  analogy. 

The  structure  of  brain  and  nerve  being  similar,  it  is  con- 
ceivable there  may  be  present  masses  of  such  nerve  coherers 
in  the  brain  whose  special  function  it  may  be  to  receive  im- 
pulses brought  from  without  through  the  connecting  sequence 
of  ether  waves  of  appropriate  order  of  magnitude.  Rontgen 
has  familiarized  us  with  an  order  of  vibrations  of  extreme 


360  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

minuteness  compared  witli  the  smallest  waves  with  which- 
we  have  hitherto  heen  acquainted,  and  of  dimensions  com- 
parable with  the  distances  between  centers  of  the  atoms  of 
which  the  material  universe  is  built  up ;  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  we  have  here  reached  the  limit  of 
frequency.  It  is  known  that  the  action  of  thought  is  ac- 
companied by  certain  molecular  movements  in  the  brain, 
and  here  we  have  physical  vibrations  capable  from  their  ex- 
treme minuteness  of  acting  directly  on  individual  molecules, 
while  their  rapidity  approaches  that  of  the  internal  and  ex-^ 
ternal  movements  of  the  atoms  themselves. 

Confirmation  of  telepathic  phenomena  is  afforded  by 
many  converging  experiments,  and  by  many  spontaneous 
occurrences  only  thus  intelligible.  The  most  varied  proof, 
perhaps,  is  dra^^TL  from  analysis  of  the  sub-conscious  work- 
ings of  the  mind,  when  these,  whether  by  accident  or  de- 
sign, are  brought  into  conscious  survey.  Evidence  of  a 
region  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness  has  been  pre- 
sented, since  its  first  inception,  in  the  ''Proceedings  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research ;"  and  its  various  aspects  are 
being  interpreted  and  welded  into  a  comprehensive  whole  by 
the  pertinacious  genius  of  F.  W.  H.  Myers. 

A  formidable  range  of  phenomena  must  be  scientifically 
sifted  before  we  effectually  grasp  a  faculty  so  strange,  so  be- 
wildering, and  for  ages  so  inscrutable,  as  the  direct  action 
of  mind  on  mind. 

An  eminent  predecessor  in  this  chair  declared  that  "  by 
an  intellectual  necessity  he  crossed  the  boundary  of  experi- 
mental evidence,  and  discerned  in  that  matter,  which  we,  in 
our  ignorance  of  its  latent  powers,  and  notwithstanding  our 
professed  reverence  for  its  Creator,  have  hitherto  covered 
with  opprobrium,  the  potency  and  promise  of  all  terrestrial 
life."  I  should  prefer  to  reverse  the  apophthegm,  and  to 
say  that  in  life  I  see  the  promise  and  potency  of  all  forms 
of  matter. 

In  old  Egyptian  days  a  well-known  inscription  was  carved 
over  the  portal  of  the  temple  of  Isis :  ''  I  am  whatever  hath 
been,  is,  or  ever  will  be;  and  my  veil  no  man  hath  yet 
lifted."  Not  thus  do  modern  seekers  after  truth  confront 
ISTature, —  the  word  that  stands  for  the  baffling  mysteries  of 


EXPERIMEIsTTS  OF  SIR  WM.  CROOKES     351 

the  Universe.  Steadily,  iiiifliiichiiiglj,  we  strive  to  pierce 
the  inmost  heart  of  l^ature,  from  what  she  is  to  re-construct 
what  she  has  been,  and  to  prophesy  what  she  yet  shall  be. 
Veil  after  veil  we  have  lifted,  and  her  face  grows  more 
beautiful,  august,  and  wonderful,  with  every  barrier  that  is 
withdrawn. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  truer  thought  better  expressed. 
It  is  the  language  of  true  science,  and  is  also  the  expression 
of  the  highest  philosophy. 


CHAPTER  X 

SUNDRY  EXPERIMENTS  AND  OBSERVATIONS 

Abundant  testimony  as  to  the  existence  of  a  hitherto  little 
explored  psychic  realm  has  doubtless  been  given  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages.  Mediumistic  phenomena  proclaim  the  ex- 
istence of  unknown  forces.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  heap 
up  in  this  place  a  still  greater  number  of  recorded  instances. 

However,  these  facts  are  so  extraordinary,  so  incompre- 
hensible, so  hard  to  believe,  that  a  mere  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  cases  is  not  without  value,  especially  when  they  are 
furnished  by  men  of  incontestable  skill  and  learning.  The ' 
old  law  proverb  Testis  unus,  testis  nullus  ("  One  witness  is 
no  witness")  is  applicable  here.  We  must  not  verify  once, 
we  must  verify  a  hundred  times,  such  apparently  scientific 
extravagances,  in  order  to  make  sure  they  are  not  delusions, 
but  sober  facts.  i 

In  short,  the  whole  subject  is  so  curious,  so  strange  that ' 
the  investigator  of  these  mysteries  is  never  surfeited. 

Hence,  in  addition  to  what  has  already  been  given,  I  shall 
select  and  present  in  this  place,  out  of  the  immense  collec- 
tion of  observations  which  I  have  for  a  long  time  been 
making,  those  which  most  strike  the  attention  and  give  added 
confirmation  to  what  has  preceded. 

In  addition  to  the  experiments  of  Crookes,  it  is  fitting  to 
add  in  this  place  those  of  the  great  English  naturalist,  Alfred 
Russol  Wallace,  also  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Lon- 
don, President  of  the  English  Anthropological  Society,  and 
well  known  as  the  scientist,  who  at  the  same  time  with  Dar- 

352 


EXPERIMEXTS  AXD  OBSERVATIONS      353 

win    (June,    1858),   gave   to   the   world   the   theory   of   the 
variation  of  species  by  natural  selection. 
I     He  himself  gives  the  following  account"^  of  his  studies  in 
[this  matter  of  the  mysterious  pyschic  force : 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1865  that  I  first  witnessed  any 
of  the  phenomena  of  what  is  called  Spiritualism,  in  the 
house  of  a  friend, —  a  sceptic,  a  man  of  science,  and  a  law- 
yer, with  none  but  members  of  his  o^vn  family  present. 
Sitting  at  a  good-sized  round  table,  with  our  hands  placed 
upon  itj  after  a  short  time  slight  movements  would  com-, 
mence  —  not  often  ''turnings"  or  '' tiltings  "  but  a  gentle 
intermittent  movement,  like  steps,  which  after  a  time  would 
bring  the  table  quite  across  the  room.  Slight  but  distinct 
tapping  sounds  were  also  heard.  The  following  notes  made 
at  the  time  were  intended  to  describe  exactly  w^hat  took 
[place : — 

j  "  July  22nd,  1865. —  Sat  wath  my  friend,  his  wife,  and 
■two  daughters  at  a  large  loo  table,  by  daylight.  In  about 
;half  an  hour  some  faint  motions  were  perceived,  and  some 
faint  taps  heard.  Tliey  gradually  increased;  the  taps  be- 
'came  very  distinct,  and  the  table  moved  considerably,  obliging 
'us  all  to  shift  our  chairs.  Then  a  curious  vibratory  motion  of 
•  the  table  commenced,  almost  like  the  shivering  of  a  living 
animal.  I  could  feel  it  up  to  my  elbows.  These  phenomena 
were  variously  repeated  for  two  hours.  On  trying  after- 
wards, w^e  found  the  table  could  not  be  voluntarily  moved 
.in  the  same  manner  without  a  great  exertion  of  force,  and 
we  could  discover  no  possible  w^ay  of  producing  the  taps 
■while  our  hands  were  upon  the  table." 

j  On  other  occasions  we  tried  the  experiment  of  each  person 
':in  succession  leaving  the  table,  and  found  that  the  phenomena 
continued  the  same  as  before,  both  taps  and  the  table  move- 
ment. Once  I  requested  one  after  another  to  leave  the 
;  table.  The  phenomena  continued,  but,  as  the  number  of 
'sitters  diminished,  wdth  decreasing  vigor,  and,  just  after  the 
?last  person  had  drawn  back,  leaving  me  alone  at  the  table, 

'  *  On  Miracles  and  Modern  Spiritualism,  London,  1875,  French  trans- 
lation, Paris,  1889  (the  English  word  spiritualism  is  always  used  here 
in  the  sense  of  sjnritism) . 


354  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

there  were  two  dull  taps  or  blows,  as  witli  a  fist  on  the 
pillar  or  foot  of  the  table,  the  vibration  of  which  I  could 
feel  as  well  as  hear. 

Some  time  before  these  observations  I  had  met  a  gentle- 
man who  had  told  me  of  most  wonderful  phenomena  oc- 
curring in  his  own  family, —  among  them  the  palpable  motion 
of  solid  bodies  when  no  person  Avas  touching  them  or  near 
them;  and  he  had  recommended  me  to  go  to  a  public 
medium  in  London  (Mrs.  Marshall),  where  I  might  see 
things  equally  wonderful.  Accordingly,  in  September,  1865, 
I  began  a  series  of  visits  to  Mrs.  Marshall,  generally  ac- 
companied by  a  friend, —  a  good  chemist  and  mechanic,  and 
of  a  throroughly  sceptical  mind. 

1.  A  small  table,  on  w^hich  the  hands  of  four  persons 
were  placed  (including  my  own  and  Mrs.  Marshall's),  rose 
up  vertically  about  a  foot  from  the  floor,  and  remained 
suspended  for  about  twenty  seconds,  while  my  friend,  who 
was  sitting  looking  on,  could  see  the  lower  part  of  the  table 
with  the  feet  freely  suspended  above  the  floor. 

2.  While  sitting  at  a  large  table,  with  Miss  T.  on  my  left, 
and  Mr.  R.  on  my  right,  a  guitar  which  had  been  played 
in  Miss  T's  hand  slid  do^vn  onto  the  floor,  passed  over  my: 
feet,  and  came  to  Mr.  R.,  against  whose  legs  it  raised  itself  i 
up  till  it  appeared  above  the  table.  I  and  Mr.  R.  were: 
watching  it  carefully  the  whole  time,  and  it  behaved  as  if  i 
alive  itself,  or  rather  as  if  a  small  invisible  child  were  by 
great  exertions  moving  it  and  raising  it  up.  These  two; 
phenomena  were  witnessed  in  bright  gaslight. 

3.  A  chair,  on  which  a  relation  of  Mr.  R.'s  sat,  was  lifted 
up  with  her  on  it.  Afterwards,  when  she  returned  to  the 
table  from  the  piano,  where  she  had  been  playing,  her  chair 
moved  away  just  as  she  was  going  to  sit  down.  On  drawing: 
it  up,  it  moved  away  again.  After  this  had  happened  three 
times,  it  became  apparently  fixed  to  the  floor,  so  that  she 
could  not  raise  it.  Mr.  R.  then  took  hold  of  it,  and  found 
that  it  was  only  by  a  great  exertion  he  could  lift  it  off  the 
floor.  This  sitting  took  place  in  broad  daylight,  on  a  bright- 
day,  and  in  a  room  on  the  first  floor  with  two  windows. 

However  strange  and  unreal  these  few  phenomena  may 
seem  to  readers  who  have  seen  nothing  of  the  kind,  I  posi- 


i 


I  EXPERIMENTS  AXD  OBSERVATIONS      355 

tively  affirm  that  they  are  facts  which  really  happened  just 

!  as  I  have  narrated  them,  and  that  there  was  no  room  for 

■  any  possible  trick  or  deception.     In  each  case,  before  we 

began,  we  turned  up  the  tables  and  chairs,  and  saw  that  they 

were  ordinary  pieces  of  furniture,  and  that  there  was  no 

connection    between   them    and   the   flooor,    and   we   placed 

them  where  we   pleased  before  we  sat  down.     Several  of 

the  phenomena  occurred  entirely  under  our  own  hands,  and 

quite    disconnected    from    the    "  medium."     They   were    as 

,much  realities  as  the  motion  of  nails  towards  a  magnet,  and, 

it  may  be  added,  not  in  themselves  more  improbable  or  more 

I  incomprehensible. 

The  mental  phenomena  which  most  frequently  occur  are 
the  spelling  out  of  the  names  of  relatives  of  persons  present, 
itheir  ages,  or  any  other  particulars  about  them.  They  are 
especially  uncertain  in  their  manifestation,  though  when 
ithey  do  succeed  they  are  very  conclusive  to  the  persons  who 
witness  them.  The  general  opinion  of  sceptics  as  to  thest 
phenomena  is,  that  they  depend  simply  on  the  acuteness  and 
talent  of  the  medium  in  hitting  on  the  letters  which  form 
'the  name,  by  the  manner  in  which  persons  dwell  upon  or 
hurry  over  them, —  the  ordinary  mode  of  receiving  these 
:3ommunications  being  for  the  person  interested  to  go  over 
la  printed  alphabet,  letter  by  letter,  loud  taps  indicating  the 
: letters  which  form  the  required  names.  I  am  going  to 
choose  some  of  our  experiments  which  show  how  impossible 
:it  is  to  accept  this  explanation. 

When  I  first  received  a  communication  myself  I  was 
particularly  careful  to  avoid  giving  any  indication,  by  going 
with  steady  regailarity  over  the  letters;  yet  there  was  spelt 
out  correctly,  first,  the  place  where  my  brother  died,  Para; 
then  his  Christian  name,  Herbert;  and  lastly,  at  my  re- 
quest, the  name  of  the  mutual  friend  who  last  saw  him, 
Henry  Walter  Bates.  On  this  occasion  our  party  of  six 
visited  Mrs.  Marshall  for  the  first  time,  and  my  name  as 
well  as  those  of  the  rest  of  the  party,  except  one,  were  un- 
known to  her.  That  one  was  my  married  sister,  whose 
name  was  no  clue  to  mine. 

On  the  same  occasion  a  young  lady,  a  connection  of  Mr. 
R.'b  was  told  that  a  communication  was  to  be  made  to  her. 


35G  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  TOECES 

She  took  the  alphabet,  and  instead  of  pointing  to  the  letters 
one  by  one,  she  moved  the  pencil  smoothly  over  the  lines 
with  the  greatest  steadiness.  I  watched  her,  and  wrote 
down  the  letters  which  the  taps  indicated.  The  name  pro- 
duced was  an  extraordinary  one,  the  letters  being  Thomas 
Doe  Thacker.  I  thought  there  must  be  an  error  in  the  latter 
part;  but  the  names  were  Thomas  Doe  Thacker,  the  lady's 
father,  every  letter  being  coiTect.  A  number  of  other  names, 
places,  and  dates  were  spelt  out  on  this  occasion  with  equal 
accuracy;  but  I  give  only  these  two,  because  in  these  I  am 
sure  no  clue  was  given  by  which  the  names  could  have  been 
g-uessed  by  the  most  pretematurally  acute  intellect. 

On  another  occasion,  I  accompanied  my  sister  and  a  ladj' 
who  had  never  been  there  before  to  Mrs.  Marshall's,  and  we 
had  a  very  curious  illustration  of  the  absurdity  of  imputing 
the  spelling  of  names  to  the  receiver's  hesitation  and  the 
medium's  acuteness.  She  wished  the  name  of  a  particulai 
deceased  relative  to  be  spelled  out  to  her,  and  pointed  to  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  in  the  usual  way,  while  I  wrote 
down  those  indicated.  The  first  three  letters  were  y  r  n. 
''  Oh !  "  said  she,  "  that's  nonsense ;  we  had  better  bcgir 
again."  Just  then  an  e  came,  and,  thinking  I  saw  what  il 
was,  I  said,  "  Please  go  on,  I  imderstand  it."  The  whole 
was  then  spelt  out  thus:  ymehkcocffej.  The  lady  ever 
then  did  not  see  it,  till  I  separated  it  thus :  yrneh  kcocffej 
or  Henry  Jeffcock, —  the  name  of  the  relative  she  hac 
wanted,  accurately  spelt  backwards. 

Another  phenomenon,  necessitating  the  exertion  both  oi 
force  and  intellect,  is  the  following:  The  table  having  beer 
previously  examined,  a  sheet  of  note  paper  was  markec 
privately  by  me,  and  placed  with  a  lead-pencil  under  the 
centre  foot  of  the  table,  all  present  having  their  hand^ 
upon  the  table.  After  a  few  minutes,  taps  are  heard,  and 
on  taking  up  the  paper,  I  find  written  on  it,  in  a  free  hand 
"  William."  On  another  occasion,  a  friend  from  the  coun 
try  —  a  total  stranger  to  the  medium,  and  whose  name  wa; 
never  mentioned  —  accompanied  me ;  and,  after  receiving 
what  purported  to  be  a  communication  from  his  son,  a  pape: 
was  put  under  the  table,  and  in  a  few  minutes  tliere  wa; 
found  written  on  it  "  Charley  T.  Dodd."  the  correct  name 


EXPEEIME]S^TS  AXD  OBSERVATIOXS      357 

In  these  cases  it  is  certain  there  was  no  machinery  under 
.  the  table ;  and  it  simply  remains  to  ask  if  it  were  possible  for 
.  Mrs.  Marshall  to  slip  off  her  boots,  seize  the  pencil  and 
paper  with  her  toes,  and  write  on  it  a  name  she  had  to 
■  guess  at,  and  again  put  on  her  boots  without  removing  her 
I  hands  from  the  table,  or  giving  any  indication  whatever  of 
her  exertions. 

It  was  in  Xovember,  1866,  that  my  sister  discovered  that 
a  lady  living  with  her  had  the  power  of  inducing  loud  and 
distinct  taps  and  other  curious  phenomena ;  and  I  now  began 
a  series  of  observ^ations  in  my  own  house,  the  most  important 
of  which  I  shall  briefly  narrate. 

When  we  sat  at  a  large  loo  table  without  a  cloth,  with 
all  our  hands  upon  it,  the  taps  would  generally  commence  in 
a  few  minutes.     They  sound  as  if  made  on  the  under  side 
of  the  leaf  of  the  table,  in  various  parts  of  it.     They  change 
in  tone  and  loudness,  from  a  sound  like  that  produced  by 
'tapping  with  a  needle  or  a  long  finger-nail,  to  others  like 
I  blows  with  a  fist  or  slaps  with  the  fingers  of  a  hand.     Sounds 
I  are  produced  also  like  scraping  with  a  finger-nail,  or  like 
1  the  rubbing  of  a  damp  finger  pressed  very  hard  on  the  table. 
The  rapidity  with  which  these  sounds  are  produced  and  are 
changed   is  very  remarkable.     They  will  imitate,   more   or 
'less  exactly,  sounds  which  we  make  with  our  fingers  above 
i  the  table ;  they  will  keep  good  time  to  a  tune  whistled  by  one 
of  the  party;  they  will  sometimes,  at  request,  play  a  very 
fair  tune  themselves,  or  will  follow  accurately  a  hand  tap- 
ping a  tune  upon  the  table. 

Of  course,  the  first  impression  is  that  some  one's  foot  is 
'lifting  up  the  table.  To  answer  this  objection,  I  prepared 
the  table  before  our  second  trial  without  telling  any  one, 
by  stretching  some  thin  tissue  paper  between  the  feet  an 
inch  or  two  from  the  bottom  of  the  pillar,  in  such  a  manner 
that  any  attempt  to  insert  the  foot  must  crush  or  tear  the 
paper.  The  table  rose  up  as  before,  resisted  pressure  do^vn- 
wards,  as  if  it  was  resting  on  the  back  of  some  animal,  sunk 
to  the  floor,  and  in  a  short  time  rose  again,  and  then  dropped 
suddenly  down.  I  now  with  some  anxiety  turned  up  the 
table,  and,  to  the  surprise  of  all  present,  showed  them  the 
delicate  tissue  stretched  across  altogether  uninjured!     Eind- 


358  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

ing  that  this  test  was  troublesome,  as  the  paper  or  threads 
had  to  be  renewed  every  time,  and  were  liable  to  be  broken! 
accidentally  before  the  experiment  began,   I  constructed  a" 
cylinder  of  hoops  and  laths,  covered  with  canvas.     The  table 
was  placed  within  this  as  in  a  well,  and,  as  it  was  aboutj 
eighteen  inches  high,  it  kept  the  feet  and  dresses  of  the  ladieal 
away  from  the  table.     The  latter  rose  without  the  least  diffi- 
culty, the  hands  of  all  the  group  being  held  above  it. 

A  small  centre-table  suddenly  moved  up  of  its  own  accord 
to  the  table  by  the  side  of  the  medium,  as  if  it  had  graduallyi 
got  within  the  sphere  of  a  strong  attractive  force.  Aftep-| 
wards,  at  our  request,  it  was  throwTi  down  on  the  floor  with- 
out any  person  touching  it,  and  it  then  moved  about  in  a 
strange  life-like  manner,  as  if  seeking  some  means  of  getting 
up  again,  tmming  its  claws  first  on  one  side  and  then  on 
the  other.  On  another  occasion,  a  very  large  leather  arm- 
chair which  stood  at  least  four  or  five  feet  from  the  medium, 
suddenly  wheeled  up  to  her,  after  a  few  slight  preliminary 
movements.  It  is,  of  course,  easy  to  say  that  what  I  relate 
is  impossible.  I  maintain  that  it  is  accurately  true ;  and 
that  no  man,  whatever  be  his  attainments,  has  such  an  ex- 
haustive knowledge  of  the  powers  of  nature  as  to  justify  him 
in  using  the  word  "  impossible  "  with  regard  to  facts  which 
I  and  many  others  have  repeatedly  witnessed. 

We  evidently  have  here  facts  similar  to  those  which  I  ob- 
served in  my  experiments  with  Eusapia  and  with  other  me- 
diums. 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace  continues  his  account  by  the  cita- 
tion of  cases  analogous  to  those  which  have  been  describedj 
in  this  work;  then  sums  up  the  experiments  of  Crookes,  o| 
Varley,  Morgan,  and  other  English  scientists;  does  me  the 
honor  of  citing  my  letter  to  the  Dialectical  Society  which  I 
have  printed  above;  passes  in  review  the  history  of  Spirit- 
ualism, and  declares  that  (1)  the  facts  are  incontestable,  and 
that  (2),  in  his  opinion,  the  best  explanatory  hypothesis  ia' 
that  of  spirits,  or  the  souls  of  the  disemhodied  —  the  theory^ 
of  '^  the  unconscious  "  being  evidently  inadequate. 


EXPEEIME^^TS  AND  OBSERVATIONS      359 

i  Such  is  also  the  opinion  of  the  electrician  Cromwell  Var- 
ley.  Neither  he  nor  Wallace  believes  that  there  is  anything 
[Supernatural  in  the  phenomena.  Discarnate  spirits  are  in 
nature,  as  well  as  the  incarnate.  "  The  triviality  of  the 
: communications  ought  not  to  astonish  us,  if  we  consider  the 
myriads  of  trivial  and  fantastic  human  beings  who  every 
day  become  ghosts  and  are  the  same  beings  the  day  after 
|their  death  that  they  were  the  day  before." 
;  Professor  Morgan,  the  brilliant  author  of  the  Budget  of 
Paradoxes  (an  excellent  piece  of  work,  and  highly  compli- 
iQiented  by  the  London  Athenceum,  in  1865),  expresses  the 
isame  opinion  in  his  work  on  Mind  (1863).  Not  only  does 
'he  think  that  the  facts  are  incontestable,  but  he  also  believes 
,±at  the  hypothesis  that  explains  the  facts  by  intelligences 
•exterior  to  ourselves  is  the  only  satisfying  one.  He  relates, 
limong  other  things,  that,  in  one  of  the  seances  attended  by 
'lim,  a  friend  of  his  (a  very  sceptical  person),  was  making 
i  little  fun  of  the  spirits,  whereupon,  while  they  were  all 
standing  (a  dozen  experimenters  of  them)  around  the  dining 
'oom  table,  and  forming  the  chain  above  it,  without  contact, 
;he  heavy  table  began  to  move  of  its  own  accord,  and,  drag- 
ging along  the  whole  group,  made  a  rush  at  the  sceptic,  and 
pinned  him  against  the  back  of  the  sofa,  until  he  cried 
'  Hold  !  enough ! '' 

Still,  does  that  constitute  proof  of  an  independent  spirit? 
Was  it  not  an  expression  of  the  collective  thought  of  the 
company  ?  And,  likewise,  in  the  experience  which  Wallace 
las  just  cited,  were  not  the  dictated  names  latent  in  the  brain 
)f  the  questioner?  And  was  not  the  little  centre-table,  in 
ts  climbings  acting  under  the  physical  and  pyschical  in- 
luences  of  the  medium  ? 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanatory  hypothesis,  the  tacts 
ire  undeniable. 

We  have  here,  before  all,  a  group  of  substantial  English 


360  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  TOECES  f 

scientists  of  the  first  rank,  in  whose  opinion  the  denial  of  the 
phenomena  is  a  sort  of  madness. 

French  scientists  are  a  little  more  belated  than  their  neigh- 
bors. ISTevertheless,  I  have  already  called  attention  to  some 
of  them  during  the  course  of  this  work.  I  should  have  taken 
pleasure  in  adding  the  names  of  the  lamented  Pierre  Curie' 
and  of  Professor  d'  Arsonval,  if  they  had  published  the  ex- 
periments they  made  with  Eusapia  during  July,  1905,  and 
March  and  April,  1906,  at  the  General  Institute  of  Psy- 
chology. 

Among  the  most  judicious  of  experimenters  in  psychical 
phenomena  I  ought  also  to  mention  M.  J.  Maxwell,  a  doctor 
of  medicine  and  (a  very  different  function)  advocate-general 
at  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  Bordeaux. 

The  reader  may  have  already  noticed  (p.  1Y3)  the  part 
which  this  investigator,  at  once  a  magistrate  and  a  scientist, 
took  in  the  experiments  made  at  V  Agnelas  in  1895.  Eusapia 
is  not  the  only  medium  with  whom  he  studied,  and  his  ac- 
quaintance with  our  subject  is  supported  by  the  best  of  docu- 
mentary evidence. 

It  is  fitting  that  I  present  to  the  reader  at  this  point  the, 
most  characteristic  facts  and  the  essential  conclusions  seti 
forth  in  his  work.* 

The  author  has  made  a  special  examinations  of  raps. 

Raps  (coups  frappes). —  The  contact  of  hands  is  not 
necessary  to  obtain  raps.  With  certain  mediums  I  have 
very  readily  obtained  them  without  contact. 

When  one  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  raps  with  contact, 
one  of  the  surest  means  of  continuing  to  thus  obtain  them, 
is  to  keep  the  hands  resting  on  the  table  for  a  certain  time, 
then  to  lift  them  very  slowly,  keeping  the  palms  turned 
downward  toward  the  table,  the  fingers  loosely  opened,  but 
not    held    stiffly.     It    rarely    happens    under    such    circum- 

*  Les  Ph6nonidncs  psychiques.     One  vol.     8vo.  Paris,  1903. 


EXPEKIMENTS  A^B  OBSERVATION'S      361 

stances,  that  the  raps  do  not  continue  to  make  themselves 
heard,  at  least  for  some  time.  I  need  not  add  that  the  ex- 
perimenters should  not  only  avoid  touching  the  table  with 
their  hands,  but  even  with  any  other  part  of  their  bodies, 
or  their  clothes.  The  contact  of  garments  with  the  table 
may  be  sufficient  to  produce  raps  which  have  in  them  nothing 
supernormal.  It  is  necessary  therefore  to  exercise  great 
icare  that  the  dresses  of  ladies  do  not  come  in  contact 
with  the  legs  of  the  table.  When  the  necessary  precautions 
are  used,  the  raps  sound  in  a  very  convincing  way. 

In  the  case  of  certain  mediums,  the  energy  set  free  is 
powerful  enough  to  act  at  a  distance.  I  once  happened  to 
hear  raps  upon  a  table  which  was  almost  six  feet  from  the 
medium.  We  had  had  a  very  short  sitting  and  had  left 
the  table.  I  was  reclining  in  an  easy-chair;  the  medium, 
standing,  was  conversing  with  me,  when  a  series  of  raps 
was  made  upon  the  table  which  we  had  just  left.  It  was 
broad  daylight  in  midsummer,  about  ^ve  o'clock  in  the 
!  evening.  The  raps  were  forcible  and  lasted  for  several 
minutes. 

I  have  often  observed  facts  of  this  kind.  I  happened 
once,  while  travelling,  to  meet  an  interesting  medium. 
He  did  not  allow  me  to  use  his  name,  but  I  may  say  that 
he  is  an  honorable  man,  well  informed,  occupying  an  official 
position.  I  obtained  with  him  lively  raps  in  restaurants 
and  in  railway  lunch  counters.  He  did  not  suspect  that  he 
possessed  this  latent  faculty  before  he  had  experimented 
with  me.  To  have  observed  the  raps  produced  under  these 
conditions  would  have  been  sufficient  to  convince  anyone  of 
their  authenticity.  The  imusual  noise  made  by  these  raps 
attracted  the  attention  of  persons  present  and  gave  us  much 
annoyance.  The  result  surpassed  our  expectations.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  more  we  were  confused  with  the  noise  made 
by  our  raps,  the  more  frequent  they  became.  One  would 
have  said  that  some  waggish  creature  was  producing  them 
and  amusing  himself  with  our  embarrassment. 
.1  also  obtained  fine  raps  upon  the  floors  of  museums  be- 
fore the  pictures  of  the  old  masters.  The  most  common  are 
those  made,  with  contact,  upon  the  table  or  upon  the  floor; 


362  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

next,  those  made  at  a  distance  upon  various  articles  of  furni- 
ture. 

More  rarely,  I  have  heard  them  on  the  garments  of  the 
sitters  or  of  the  medium,  or  upon  the  coverings  of  pieces  of 
furniture.  I  have  heard  them  on  sheets  of  paper  laid  on  the 
experiment-table,  in  books,  in  walls,  in  tambourines,  in  small 
wooden  objects,  especially  in  a  planchette  used  for  automatic 
writing.  I  noticed  very  curious  raps  in  the  case  of  a 
writing-medium.  When  she  had  automatic  w^riting,  the  raps 
were  produced  with  extreme  rapidity  at  the  end  of  her 
pencil;  but,  the  pencil  itself  did  not  tap  the  table.  Several 
times  and  very  carefully  I  put  my  hand  on  the  end  of  the. 
pencil  opposite  the  point,  without  the  latter  leaving  for  a 
single  moment  the  paper  on  the  table:  the  raps  sounded  in; 
the  wood,  not  on  the  paper.  In  this  case,  of  course,  the 
medium  held  the  pencil. 

The  raps  occur  even  when  I  place  my  finger  on  the  upper 
end  of  the  pencil  and  when  I  press  its  point  against  the 
paper.  You  feel  the  pencil  vibrating,  but  it  is  not  displaced. 
Inasmuch  as  these  raps  are  very  resonant,  I  calculated  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  give  a  pretty  strong  blow  in  order 
to  produce  them  artificially.  The  necessary  movement  re- 
quires a  lifting  of  the  point  from  two  to  five  millimeters,  ac- 
cording to  the  intensity  of  the  raps.  Xow  the  point  does 
not  seem  to  be  displaced.  Furthermore,  when  the  writing 
is  going  on,  these  raps  take  place  with  gTcat  rapidity,  and 
the  examination  of  the  writing  does  not  show  any  place 
where  a  stop  occurred.  The  text  is  continuous,  no  trace  of 
tapping  is  perceptible  in  it,  no  thickening  of  the  strokes  can 
be  perceived.  Observations  made  under  such  conditions^ 
seem  to  me  to  exclude  the  possibility  of  fraud. 

I  have  observed  that  these  raps  occur,  without  apparent 
cause,  as  far  as  nine  feet  from  the  medium.  They  manifest 
themselves  as  the  expression  of  an  activity  and  of  a  will 
distinct  from  those  of  the  observers.  Such  is  the  appearance 
of  the  phenomenon.  A  curious  fact  results  from  all  this,i 
that  not  only  do  the  raps  occur  as  the  product  of  an  in-i 
telligent  action,  but  they  also  usually  agree  to  perform  as 
often  as  asked,  and  to  produce  definite  rhythms,  for  example, 


EXPEKIME:^TS  and  observations      363 

certain  airs.  In  like  manner  they  imitate  the  raps  made  by 
the  experimenters,  upon  demand  of  the  latter. 

The  different  raps  frequently  respond  to  each  other,  and 
it  is  one  of  the  prettiest  experiments  in  which  one  can  take 
part  to  hear  these  blows,  now  slight  and  muffled,  now  sharp, 
and  abrupt,  or  again  soft  and  gentle,  sounding  simuV 
taneously  upon  the  table,  the  floor,  and  the  frame-work  and; 
coverings  of  the  furniture. 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  study  these  curious 
rappings  at  close  range,  and  I  believe  I  have  reached  certain 
conclusions.  The  first,  and  the  best  attested,  is  that  the 
raps  are  closely  connected  with  the  muscular  movements  of 
the  sitters.  I  will  sum  up  my  observations  on  this  point  as 
follows : 

1.  Every  muscular  movement,  even  a  feeble  one,  is  gen- 
erally followed  by  a  rap. 

2.  The  intensity  of  the  raps  did  not  seem  to  me  to  be  pro- 
portional to  the  muscular  movement  made. 

3.  The  intensity  of  the  raps  did  not  seem  to  me  to  vary 
in  proportion  to  their  distance  from  the  medium. 

The  following  are  the  facts  upon  which  my  conclusions 
rest: 

I  frequently  observed  that  when  we  had  raps  that  were 
feeble  and  occurred  only  at  intervals,  an  excellent  means  of 
producing  them  w^as  to  form  the  chain  upon  the  table,  the 
hands  resting  upon  it,  and  the  observ^ers  putting  their  fingers 
in  light  contact.  One  of  them,  without  breaking  the  chain 
(a  feat  he  accomplished  by  holding  in  the  same  hand  the 
right  hand  of  his  neighbor  on  the  left  and  the  left  hand  of 
his  neighbor  on  the  right)  moved  his  released  hand  in  circu- 
lar sweeps  or  passes  over  the  table,  at  the  level  of  the  circle 
formed  by  the  opened  hands  of  the  observers.  After  hav- 
■■  ing  made  this  movement  four  or  five  times,  always  in  the 
'  same  direction, —  that  is  to  say,  after  having  thus  traced 
four  or  five  circles  over  the  table,  the  experimenter  brought 
his  hand  over  toward  the  centre  at  a  variable  height  and 
moved  it  down  tow^ards  the  table.  Then  he  abruptly  ar- 
rested this  movement  at  a  distance  of  seven  or  eight  inches 
from  the  top.  The  abrupt  stoppage  of  his  hand  was  tallied 
by  a  rap  in  the  wood.     It  is  an  exceptional  case  when  this 


364:    MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

process  does  not  yield  taps, —  that  is  to  say,  when  there  is  a 
medium  in  the  circle  capable,  even  feebly,  of  producing 
them. 

The  same  experiment  can  be  made  without  touching  the 
table,  but  forming  around  it  a  kind  of  closed  chain.  One 
of  the  operators  then  acts  as  in  the  preceding  case. 

I  have  no  need  to  recall  to  the  minds  of  my  readers  that 
with  certain  mediums,  raps  are  produced  without  any  move- 
ment being  made.  Almost  all  mediums  can  obtain  them 
in  this  way  by  keeping  perfectly  quiet  and  having  patience. 
But  one  would  say  that  the  execution  of  the  movement  acts 
as  a  determining  cause.  It  seems  as  if  the  accumulated 
energy  received  a  kind  of  stimulus. 

Levitations. —  One  day  we  improvised  an  experiment  in 
the  afternoon,  and  I  remember  that  I  observed  a  very  in- 
teresting levitation  made  under  these  circumstances.  It  was 
about  five  o'clock  in  the  evening  (at  any  rate  it  was  broad 
daylight),  in  the  salon  at  TAgnelas.  We  took  our  places 
about  the  table,  standing,  Eusapia  took  the  hand  of  one  of 
us  and  placed  it  on  the  comer  of  the  table,  at  her  right.  The 
table  thereupon  rose  up  to  the  height  of  our  foreheads ;  that 
is  to  say,  the  top  of  the  table  rose  at  least  as  high  as  five 
feet  above  the  fioor. 

Such  experiments  were  very  convincing,  for  it  was  im- 
possible for  Eusapia,  the  circumstances  being  such  as  they 
were,  to  lift  the  table  by  a  normal  act.  It  is  enough  to  sup- 
pose that  she  merely  touched  the  corner  of  the  table,  to  find 
out  how  heavy  a  weight  she  would  have  had  to  lift  if  she 
had  made  a  muscular  movement.  Besides,  she  had  not  a 
sufiicient  grip  on  the  table  to  lift  it.  Evidently,  the  condi- 
tions of  the  experiment  being  such,  she  could  not  make  use 
of  one  of  the  fraudulent  processes  mentioned  by  her  critics, 
such  as  straps  or  hooks  of  any  kind.  The  phenomenon  is 
undeniably  authentic. 

The  breathing  seems  to  have  a  veiy  great  influence.  In 
the  way  things  take  place,  it  seems  as  if  the  sitters  released, 
by  breathing,  an  amount  of  motor  energy  comparable  to  that 
which  they  release  when  rapidly  moving  their  limbs.  There 
is  something  in  this  very  curious  and  difticult  to  explain. 
The  more  complete  analysis  of  the  facts  allows  us  to  think 


EXPERIME^^TS  AXD  OBSERVATION'S       365 

that  the  liberation  of  the  energy  employed  depends  upon  the 
contraction  of  the  muscles  and  not  upon  the  movement  made. 
The  thing  which  reveals  this  peculiarity  is  easy  to  observe. 
When  we  are  forming  the  chain  about  the  table,  we  can  set 
up  a  movement  without  contact  by  mutually  pressing  our 
hands  together  with  a  certain  force,  or  by  pressing  the  feet 
hard  upon  the  floor.  The  first  of  these  means  is  much  the 
better  of  the  two.  The  arms  have  only  made  an  insignificant 
movement,  and  one  can  say  that  the  muscular  contraction  is 
almost  the  only  physiological  phenomenon  observ^able.  Yet 
it  suffices. 

All  these  authenticated  experiments  tend  to  show  that  the 
agent  which  determines  movements  without  contact  has  some 
connection  with  our  organism,  and  probably  with  our  nervous 
system. 

Conditions  of  the  Experiments. —  We  must  never  lose  out 
of  our  sight  the  relative  importance  of  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual status  of  the  gi-oup  of  experimenters.  That  is  one 
of  the  most  difficult  things  to  seize  and  comprehend.  But 
when  the  force  is  abundant,  the  simple  manifestation  of  the 
will  is  sometimes  able  to  determine  the  movement.  For  ex- 
ample, upon  a  desire  to  that  affect  being  expressed  by  the 
sitters,  the  table  moves  in  the  way  it  is  requested  to  do. 
The  phenomena  occur  as  if  this  force  were  guided  by  an 
Intelligence  distinct  from  that  of  the  experimenters.  I 
hasten  to  say  that  I  regard  that  only  as  a  probability,  and 
that  I  think  I  have  observed  a  certain  resemblance  between 
these  personifications  and  the  secondary  personalities  of 
somnambulists. 

In  this  apparent  bond  between  the  indirect  will  of  the  sit- 
ters and  the  phenomena  there  is  a  problem  the  solution  of 
which  has  so  far  completely  escaped  me.  I  suspect  that  this 
bond  has  nothing  supernatural  about  it  and  I  realize  that 
the  Spiritualistic,  hypothesis  is  a  poorer  explanation  and  in- 
adequate to  meet  the  facts ;  but  I  cannot  formulate  any  satis- 
factory explanation. 

Close  observations  of  the  relations  existing  between  the 
phenomena  and  the  will  of  the  sitters  brings  out  other  dis- 
coveries also.  I  mean,  in  the  first  place,  the  bad  affect  which 
disagreement  among  the  experimenters  produces.     It  some- 


366  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

times  happens  that  one  of  them  expresses  the  desire  to  per- 
ceive a  certain  phenomenon.  If  the  thing  is  slow  in  taking 
place,  the  same  experimenter,  or  another  one,  will  ask  for  a 
different  spectacle.  Sometimes  different  sitters  will  ask  for 
several  contradictory  things  at  the  same  time.  The  con- 
fusion which  reigns  in  the  collective  thought  manifests  itself 
in  the  phenomena,  which  themselves  become  confused  and 
vague.* 

However,  things  do  not  happen  absolutely  as  if  the 
phenomena  were  directed  by  a  will  which  is  only  the  shadow 
or  the  reflex  of  that  of  the  sitters.  It  sometimes  happens 
that  they  show  great  independence,  and  flatly  refuse  to  yield 
to  the  desires  expressed. 

Forms  and  Phantoms. —  At  Bordeaux,  in  1897,  the  room 
"vv^here  we  held  our  sittings  was  lighted  by  a  very  large 
window.  The  outside  Venetian  blinds  of  this  window  were 
closed;  but  when  the  gas  was  lighted  in  a  little  building 
which  formed  an  adjunct  to  the  kitchen,  in  the  corner  of 
the  court  near  the  garden,  a  feeble  light  penetrated  the  room 
and  dimly  illuminated  the  window  panes.  The  window 
itself  formed  in  this  w^ay  a  bright  background  upon  which 
certain  dark  forms  were  perceived  by  a  part  of  the  ex- 
perimenters. We  all  saw  these  forms,  or  rather  this  form, 
for  it  was  always  the  same  one  that  appeared, —  a  long 
bearded  profile,  with  a  very  high  arched  nose.  This  ap- 
parition said  it  was  head  of  John,  a  personification  who  al- 
ways appears  with  Eusapia.f  This  is  a  very  extraordinary 
phenomenon.  The  first  idea  which  presents  itself  to  the 
mind  is  that  this  is  a  case  of  collective  hallucination.  But 
the  care  with  which  we  observed  this  curious  phenomenon  — 
and,  it  seems  needless  for  me  to  add,  the  calmness  with  which 
we  experimented  —  renders  this  hypothesis  very  unlikely. 

The  supposition  of  fraud  is  still  less  admissible.  The 
head,  which  we  saw  was  of  life  size,  measuring  say  sixteen 
inches  from  the  forehead  to  the  end  of  the  beard.  It  is  im- 
possible to  understand  how  Eusapia  could  have  hidden  in  her 

*  As  I  said  on  a  previous  page,  psychic  forces  have  as  much  reality 
as  physical  and  nicchanioal  ones. 

f  This  is  the  same  thing  that  I  observed  at  Monfort-l'Amaury.  See 
p.  73. 


EXPEKI]\IE:N^TS  and  OBSERVATIOXS      367 

pockets  or  under  her  clothes  any  kind  of  a  cardboard  pro- 
file. Xor  can  one  understand  any  better  how,  unknown  to 
us,  she  could  have  taken  out  this  paper  figure,  mounted  it 
upon  a  stick,  or  upon  a  wire,  and  so  operated  with  it. 
Eusapia  had  not  gone  into  a  trance:  she  herself  sometimes 
saw  the  profile  which  appeared,  and,  thoroughly  awake  and 
conscious,  took  pleasure  in  assisting  in  the  phenomena  which 
she  was  producing.  The  feeble  light  which  the  illumined 
window  shed  was  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  see  her  hands  being 
carefully  held  by  the  controllers  on  the  right  and  on  the  left. 
It  would  have  been  impossible  for  her  to  manipulate  these 
objects.  In  fact,  however,  the  profile  observed  seemed  to 
form  at  the  top  of  the  cabinet,  at  the  height  of  about  three 
and  a  half  feet  above  Eusapia's  head.  It  descended  rather 
slowly  and  so  took  its  place  above  and  in  front  of  her. 
Then  at  the  end  of  some  seconds  it  disappeared,  only  to  re- 
appear some  time  afterwards  in  the  same  circumstances. 
Every  time,  we  carefully  assured  ourselves  of  the  relative 
immobility  of  the  hand  and  arms  of  the  medium.  Hence  I 
regard  the  prodigy  which  I  am  relating  as  one  of  the  most 
certain  I  ever  verified,  so  incompatible  was  the  hypothesis 
of  fraud  with  the  conditions  under  which  we  observed. 

I  am  persuaded  that  these  facts  will  one  day  (soon  per- 
haps) receive  the  stamp  of  scientific  approval  as  subjects 
of  study.  They  will  do  this  in  spite  of  the  obstacles  which 
obstinate  infatuation  and  the  fear  of  ridicule  pile  in  the 
way. 

The  intolerance  of  certain  beings  matches  that  of  certain 
dogmas.  Catholicism,  for  example,  considers  psychic  phe- 
nomena as  the  work  of  the  Devil.  Is  it  worth  while  at  the 
present  time  to  combat  such  a  theory?  I  do  not  think 
it  is. 

But  this  question  is  foreign  to  the  psychic  facts  them- 
selves. So  far  as  my  experience  permits  me  to  judge,  these 
phenomena  are  entirely  natural.  The  Devil  does  not  show 
His  claws  in  them.  If  the  tables  should  announce  that  they 
were  Satan  himself,  there  would  be  nothing  on  the  face  of 
things  which  w^ould  lead  us  to  believe  they  were  speaking 
;  the  truth.  If  called  on  to  prove  his  power,  this  gran- 
diloquent  Satan   would   turn   out,    I   fear,   to   be   a   sorry 


368  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

thaumaturgist.  The  religious  prejudice  which  proscribes 
these  experiments  as  supernatural  is  as  little  justified  as  the 
scientific  prejudice  which  only  sees  in  them  fraud  and  im- 
posture. Here  again  the  old  adage  of  Aristotle  finds  its  ap- 
plication :     Equity  lies  between  the  two  extremes  of  opinion. 

It  is  evident  that  these  experiments  of  Dr.  Maxwell  are 
in  accord  with  all  the  preceding  ones.  The  results  ascer- 
tained mutually  confirm  each  other. 

Apropos  of  mediums  who  produce  physical  or  material 
effects,  I  should  also  like  to  mention  here  the  one  who  was 
very  specially  examined  at  Paris,  in  1902,  by  a  group  of  men 
composed  in  large  part  of  former  pupils  of  the  Polytechnic 
School.  They  held  a  dozen  seances*  in  July  and  August. 
This  group  w^as  composed  of  MM.  A.  de  Pochas,  Taton, 
Lemerle,  Bade,  de  Fontenay,  and  Dariex.  The  medium 
was  Auguste  Politi,  of  Pome.  He  was  forty-seven  years 
old. 

Several  very  remarkable  table-levitations  were  observed 
and  photographed  by  these  gentlemen  during  their  sittings. 
I  reproduce  here  (PI.  XIII)  one  of  these  photographs,  taken 
by  M.  de  Fontenay  which  he  kindly  allows  me  to  use.  It 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  beautiful  that  has  been  ob- 
tained, and  one  of  the  most  striking.  All  the  hands  that 
form  the  chain  are  carefully  held  away  from  the  table.  It 
seems  to  me  that  not  to  recognize  the  value  of  this  photograph 
as  a  record  would  be  to  deny  the  evidence  itself.  It  was 
taken  instantaneously  by  a  flash  of  magnesium  light.  The 
eyes  of  the  medium  had  been  bandaged,  that  the  light  might 
not  give  him  a  nervous  shock. 

This  same  medium  was  studied  at  Pome,  in  February, 
1904,  by  a  group  composed  of  Professor  Milesi,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pome,  M.  Joseph  Squanquarillo,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Franklin  Simmons  (American  travellers  passing  through 
Pome),  and  M.  and  Mme.  Cartoni. 


Plate  XIII.     Instantaneous  Thotograph  Taken  by  M.  de 

FONTEXAY  OF  TaBLE  LeVITATION  PRODUCED  BY 

THE  Medium  Augdste  Politi. 


t 


EXPERIME^^TS  AjSTD  OBSERVATION'S      369 

They  declare  that  they  heard  scales  very  well  executed 
upon  the  piano  (which  was  an  upright  one),  at  quite  a  dis- 
tance from  the  sitters;  yet  none  of  the  sitters  knew  hoAv  to 
play  on  the  piano,  while  Professor  Milesi's  deceased  sister, 
who  was  called  upon  to  manifest  herself,  was  a  very  good 
pianist 

Another  musical  phenomenon  was  produced :  A  mandolin 
placed  on  the  lid  of  the  piano,  began  of  its  own  accord  to 
play,  balancing  itself  in  the  air  until  it  went  and  fell  down 
(playing  all  the  while)  between  the  hands  of  the  experimen- 
ters who  formed  the  chain. 

Later,  at  intervals,  the  piano  was  lifted  in  its  turn,  falling 
back  noisily.  It  must  be  remarked  that  two  men  scarcely 
sufficed  to  lift  this  piano,  even  by  one  of  its  sides.  After 
the  sitting,  it  was  ascertained  that  the  instrument  had  been 
displaced  about  a  foot  and  a  half. 

But  here  follows  a  resume  of  the  phenomena  observed  with 
this  medium. 

In  every  seance,  very  vigorous  raps  were  obtained  in  the 
table  around  which  were  grouped  the  experimenters  and  the 
medium  (they  together  forming  the  chain),  while  the  lamp 
with  red  light  was  on  the  table  itself.  ''  If  we  wished  to 
produce  raps  so  sharp  and  strong  (says  M.  C.  Caccia,  the 
reporter  of  these  seances),  we  had  to  rap  with  all  our  might 
on  the  table  with  some  solid  object,  while  the  kind  of  raps 
which  were  produced  in  the  seances  with  Politi  seemed  to 
issue  from  the  interior  of  the  table  with  loud  sounds  like 
explosions." 

But  now  the  table  begins  to  be  shaken.  The  white  curtain 
of  the  cabinet  which  was  behind  the  medium,  at  a  distance  of 
twenty  inches,  swelled  out  and  floated  in  every  direction,  as 
if  a  violent  wind  had  inflated  it  from  the  other  side.  We 
heard  a  chair  moving  with  a  gliding  motion  over  the  floor. 
It  had  been  placed  there  before  the  beginning  of  the  sitting 
and  was  now  thrown  violently  over.  During  the  course  of 
the  fifth  sitting  it  came  clear   out  of  the  cabinet,  in  the 


370  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOUCES 

presence  of  everybody^  and  did  not  stop  until  it  got  near  tlie 
medium. 

These  phenomena  took  place  by  the  red  light  of  a  photo-| 
graphic  lamp.  In  the  complete  darkness  which  attended  the( 
third  seance  an  extraordinary  thing  occurred, —  so  much  the 
more  extraordinary  because  we  had  taken  special  measures  to 
forestall  any  attempt  at  fraud.  The  medium  was  held  by 
two  sitters  who,  being  very  sceptical,  had  taken  their  places 
on  his  right  and  on  his  left,  and  were  holding  his  hands 
and  his  feet. 

At  a  certain  moment  the  medium  ordered  the  operators  to 
lift  their  hands  from  the  table  and  not  to  hinder  its  move- 
ments; above  all,  not  to  break  the  chain.  Whereupon  a 
great  uproar  was  heard  in  the  cabinet.  The  medium  calls 
for  light,  and,  to  the  gTcat  amazement  of  all  of  us,  we  dis- 
cover that  the  table,  which  was  rectangular  in  form  and  did 
not  weigh  less  than  thirty-nine  pounds,  was  found  turned  up- 
side down  upon  the  floor  of  the  cabinet.  The  controllers 
declared  that  the  medium  had  not  stirred.  It  is  to  be  re- 
marked : 

1.  That  the  table  must  have  been  lifted  high  enough  to 
pass  over  the  heads  of  the  sitters. 

2.  That  it  must  have  passed  above  the  group  forming  the 
chain. 

3.  That  as  the  opening  in  the  curtains  of  the  cabinet  only 
measured  thirty-seven  inches  across,  and  the  table,  on  its 
shortest  side,  thirty  inches,  there  only  remained  free  seven 
inches  for  passing  through  this  opening. 

4.  Tliat  the  table  must  have  come  forAvard  endwise,  then 
moved  around  lengthwise  (it  was  three  feet  long),  and 
turned  upside  doA\'n,  resting  on  the  floor ;  that  the  whole  of 
this  difficult  manoeuvre  was  executed  in  a  few  seconds  in 
complete  darkness  and  without  any  of  the  sitters  having 
touched  the  table  in  the  slightest  degTee.* 

•The  Italian  journals  reproduced  a  picturesque  photograph  of  the 
table  lifted  almost  to  the  height  of  the  ceiling,  at  the  moment  it  had 
passed  over  the  heads  of  the  sitters  and  was  turning  over  (see  A.  de 
Roehas,  Exicriorifiation  de  la  moiriciic,  4th  ed.).  I  do  not  reproduce  it, 
because  it  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  authentic.  Besides,  the  observers 
declared  that  they  did  not  verify  this  phenomenon  until  after  its  pro- 


EXPERIMENTS  AND  OBSERVATIONS      371 

Luminous  phenomena  were  also  obtained.  Lights  ap- 
peared and  disappeared  in  the  air.  Some  of  them  gave  the 
outline  of  a  curve.  Thej  did  not  show  any  radiation.  In 
the  fifth  seance,  everybody  was  able  to  testify  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  two  luminous  crosses,  about  four  inches  in 
:  height. 

At  the   last   seance,   the   tambourine   fringed  with   bells, 
which   had   been   rubbed   with   phosphorous,    went   circling 
:  around  the  whole  room,  and  in  such  a  way  that  all  its  move- 
ments could  be  followed. 

During  almost  all  the  sittings,  mysterious  touchings  were 
noticed, —  among  others,  those  produced  by  an  enormous 
hairy  hand ! 

In  the  first,  fourth  and  fifth  seances  there  were  ^'  ma- 
terializations. Prof.  Italo  Palmarini  believed  that  he  rec- 
I  ognized  his  daughter,  who  had  been  dead  three  years.  He 
felt  himself  embraced ;  everybody  heard  the  sound  of  a  kiss. 
The  same  manifestation  took  place  in  the  fifth  seance.  Pro- 
fessor Palmarini  believed  that  he  still  recognized  the  per- 
son of  his  daughter. 

At  the  opening  of  each  seance  the  medium  was  searched, 
and  was  then  placed  in  a  kind  of  tig  sack,  made  to  order  for 
this  purpose,  and  fastened  at  the  neck,  the  wristSj  and  the 
feet. 

Another  medium,  the  Russian  Sambor,  was  the  object  of 
numerous  experiments  at  St.  Petersburg  during  a  period  of 
six  years.  (1897-1902.)  It  will  be  interesting  also  to 
give  a  summing  up  in  this  place  of  the  report  about  this 
man  published  by  M.  Petrovo  Solovovo.* 

In  the  first  seances  a  large  folding  screen  placed  behind 
the  medium  was  observed  to  be  vigorously  shaken.  The 
medium's  feet  and  hands  were  carefully  held.  A  table  in  a 
neighboring  chamber  moved  of  its  owm  accord.  In  a  metal 
oone  placed  on  the  table,  enclosing  a  bit  of  paper  and  a 
lead-pencil,  and  then  riveted  up,  there  was  found,  when  it 
was  unriveted,  a  ribbon,  and  a  phrase  written  on  the  paper 

*  Annates  des  Sciences  psychique,  1902. 


f' 


372  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

in  script  that  had  to  be  read  in  a  looking-glass  (ecriture  en 
miroir).  Other  cases  of  the  passage  of  matter  through 
matter  were  tried,  none  of  which  succeeded.  But  further 
on  the  reports  relate  the  following  experiments : 

In  the  month  of  February,  1901,  one  of  Sambor's  seances 
took  place  at  my  house,  in  my  study,  against  the  windows  of 
which  I  had  hung  curtains  of  black  calico  in  such  a  way  that 
the  room  was  plunged  in  the  deepest  darkness.  The  medium 
occupied  a  place  in  the  chain.  Xext  to  the  medium  were 
M.  J.  Lomatzsch,  on  his  right,  myself  on  his  left.  Sambor's 
hands  and  feet  were  faithfully  held  the  whole  time  in  a 
way  that  gave  perfect  satisfaction. 

The  phenomena  soon  began  to  develop.  I  do  not  intend 
to  take  the  time  here  to  describe  them,  but  I  wish  to  men- 
tion a  remarkable  case  of  the  passage  of  matter  through 
matter. 

M.  Lomatzsch,  controller  on  the  right,  declares  that  some- 
one is  pulling  his  chair  from  under  him.  So,  redoubling 
our  attention,  we  continue  to  hold  the  medium.  M.  Lo, 
matzsch's  chair  is  soon  positively  lifted  up,  so  that  he  is 
obliged  to  stand.  Sometime  after,  he  declares  that  some- 
one is  trying  to  hang  the  chair  on  the  hand  with  which  he 
is  holding  Sambor.  Then  the  chair  suddenly  disappears 
from  the  arm  of  M.  Lomatzsch,  and  at  the  same  moment  I 
feel  a  light  pressure  ujDon  my  left  arm  (I  do  not  mean  the 
one  which  was  in  contact  with  the  medium,  but  with  my 
neighbor  on  the  left  (M.  A.  Weber)  ;  after  which  I  feel  that 
something  heavy  is  hanging  from  my  arm.  When  the  candle 
was  lighted,  we  all  saw  that  my  left  arm  had  been  passed 
through  the  hach  of  the  chair.  In  this  way  the  chair  was 
nicely  balanced  upon  that  one  of  my  arms  which  was  not  in 
contact  with  Sambor,  but  with  my  neighbor  on  the  left.  I 
had  not  let  go  of  the  hands  of  my  neighbors. 

Such  an  observation  as  this  needs  no  commentary  (says 

the  reporter  of  this  occurrence,  M.  Petrovo  Solovovo).  The 

fact  is  simply  incomprehensible.  I  give  here  some  other 
phenomena  which  were  observed  in  May,  1902: 


[EXPERIMENTS  AND  OBSERVATIONS  373 
1  1.  A  cedar  apple,  an  old  copper  coin  which  was  found  to 
be  a  Persian  coin  of  1723,  and  an  amateur  photographic 
portrait  of  a  young  woman  in  mourning  unknown  to  any- 
l3ody  present  were  found  (coming  from  nobody  knew  where, 
'nor  in  what  way),  upon  the  table  about  which  we  were 
seated. 

2.  Several  different  objects  in  the  room  were  transported 
to  the  table  by  the  mysterious  force ;  such,  for  example,  as  a 

'  thermometer,  which  had  been  hung  on  the  wall  behind  the 
piano  at  a  distance  of  from  one-half  to  seven  feet  from  the 

'  medium ;  a  large  lantern  placed  upon  the  piano  somewhere 
between  two  and  four  feet  behind  the  medium ;  several  piles 
of  music-books  which  had  rested  on  the  same  piano;  a 
framed  portrait;  and,  finally,  the  candlesconce,  the  candle, 

•  and  the  different  parts  of  a  candlestick  belonging  to  the 
piano. 

3.  Several  times  a  bronze  bell  placed  on  the  table  was 
'  lifted  into  the  air  by  the  mysterious  force  and  noisily  rung. 

On  the  request  of  the  sittei-s  it  was  once  carried  over  to  the 
piano  (against  which  it  struck  a  sounding  blow),  and  from 
■  there  again  over  to  the  table. 

4.  Unoccupied  chairs  had  been  placed  behind  the  medium. 
One  of  them  was  several  times  lifted  and  placed  noisily  on 
the  table  in  the  midst  of  the  sitters,  and  without  having  run 
against  any  of  them.  When  upon  the  table,  this  chair  several 
times  moved  about,  fell  over,  and  picked  itself  up. 

5.  One  of  these  same  chairs  was  found  to  be  hung  by  the 
back  upon  the  joined  hands  of  the  medium  and  M.  de  Pog- 

'  genpohl.  Before  the  beginning  of  that  part  of  the  seance 
which  witnessed  this  phenomenon,  a  strip  of  cloth,  slipped 
over  the  sleeves  of  the  medium,  had  been  several  times 
tightly  twisted  around  the  wrists  of  M.  de  Poggenpohl. 

6.  At  the  request  of  the  sitters,  the  mysterious  force 
several  times  stopped  the  playing  of  the  music-box  (it  stood 
on  the  table  around  which  we  were  seated),  after  which  it 
began  to  play  again. 

7.  A  sheet  of  paper  and  a  lead  pencil,  placed  on  the  table, 
were  thrown  on  the  floor,  and  everybody  distinctly  heard 
the  pencil  moving  over  the  paper  with  a  heavy  pressure  and, 
with  a  sharp  tap,  putting  a  period  at  the  end  of  what  had 


374  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOUCES 

been  written.     After  tliis  the  pencil  was  laid  on  the  tahle. 

8.  Five  of  the  experimenters  declared  that  they  had  been 
touched  bj  some  mysterious  hand. 

9.  Twice  the  mysterious  force  drew  sounds  from  the 
piano.  The  first  time,  this  took  place  when  the  lid  of  the 
piano  was  open.  The  second  time,  the  sounds  were  heard 
after  the  lid  had  been  locked  with  a  key,  the  key  remaining 
on  the  table  in  the  midst  of  the  circle  of  experimenters. 
At  first  the  unkno^vn  force  began  to  play  a  melody  on  the 
high  notes,  and  two  or  three  times  produced  trills.  Then 
chords  on  the  bass  notes  were  heard  at  the  same  time  with 
the  melody,  and,  ■  when  the  piano  was  playing,  the  music- 
box  also  began  to  play,  both  performances  lasting  several 
minutes. 

10.  During  all  the  phenomena  which  have  just  been  de- 
scribed, the  medium  (Sambor),  seemed  sunk  in  a  profound 
trance,  and  remained  almost  motionless.  The  phenomena 
were  not  accompanied  by  any  bustle  or  confusion.  His  hands 
and  his  feet  were  all  the  time  controlled  by  his  neighbors. 
M.  de  Poggenpohl  and  Loris-Melikow  several  times  saw  some- 
thing long,  black,  and  slender  detaching  itself  from  him 
during  the  phenomena  and  moving  toward  the  objects. 

I  will  add,  in  closing  (says  M.  Petrovo  Solovovo),  that 
this  medium  was  accused  of  cupidity  and  intemperance. 
These  seances  were  the  last  he  gave  (he  died  a  few  months 
afterward).  But,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  have  a  tender  spot  in 
my  heart  for  the  late  M.  Sambor.  This  Little-Russian,  a 
former  telegraph  operator,  polished  and  humanized  by  the 
six  or  seven  winters  that  he  had  passed  in  St.  Petersburg  — 
can  it  be  that  blind  Nature  had  chosen  this  man  to  be  the 
intermediary  between  our  world  and  the  doubtful  Beyond? 
—  or,  at  least,  another  world  of  beings  whose  precise  nature 
(begging  the  pardon  of  the  spirits)  would  be  an  enigma  to 
me,  provided  I  positively  believed  in  them. 

It  is  with  that  word  "  doubt "  (alas !  is  not  douht  the  most 
certain  result  of  mediumistic  experiments  ?)  that  I  end  this 
Keport. 

To  this  whole  series  of  varied  observations  and  experi- 
ments we  could  still  add  manv  more.     In  1905  MM.  Charles 


EXPERIMENTS  AND  OBSEEVATIONS       3Y5 

Richet  and  Gabriel  Delanne  held  some  famous  seances  in 
Algiers.     But  is  not  impossible  that  fraud  may  have  crept 
into  their  experiments,  in  spite  of  all  the  precautions  taken 
•  by  them.      (The  photographs  of  the  phantom  Bien-Boa  have 
an  artificial  look.)      In  1906,  the  American  medium,  Miller, 
[  gave  in  Paris  several  seances  in  which  it  really  seems  as  if 
I  true  apparitions  were  manifested.     I  cannot  say  anything 
I  personally  about  it,  not  having  been  present.     Among  other 
I  experimenters,    there   were   two   very   competent   ones,   who 
'  studied   this   medium ;    namely,    MM.    G.   Delanne   and   G. 
I  Mery.     The  first  concludes  that  the  apparitions  were  what 
they  represented  themselves  to  be  (see  Bevue  scientifique  et 
■  morale  du  spiritisme)  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  spirits  of  the  de- 
parted.    The  second,  on  the  other  hand,  declares  in  UEcho 
du  Merveilleux,  that,    "  until  there   is  fuller   information, 
we  must  be  satisfied  with  not  comprehending." 
i|      It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  my  plan  to  discuss  in  this  par- 
■■ ;  ticular   place,    "  apparitions  "    or    "  materializations.''     We 
may  ask  ourselves  whether  the  fluid  which  certainly  emanates 
from  the  medium  may  not  produce  a  kind  of  condensation 
'  able  to  furnish  to  the  most  interested  observer  of  the  mani- 
festation the  elusive  vision  of  an  unreal  personality  which, 
I  besides,  only  lasts,  as  a  general  thing,  for  a  few  seconds.     Is 
it  a  melange  or  combination  of  fluids?     But  it  is  not  yet 
;  time  to  make  hypotheses. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MY    GENERAL    IXQUIEY    EESPECTING    OBSEEVATIOXS    OF    UNEX- 
PLAINED PHENOMENA 

A  certain  number  of  my  readers  perhaps  remember  the 
general  inquiry  that  I  instituted  in  the  course  of  the  year 
1899  respecting  observation  of  the  unexplained  phenomena 
of  telepathy,  manifestations  of  the  dying,  premonitory 
dreams,  etc. —  an  inquiry  published  in  part  in  my  work 
Ulnconnu  et  les  prohlemes  psychiques.  I  received  4280  re- 
plies composed  of  2456  no  and  1824  yes.  Among  the  latter 
there  are  1758  letters  with  more  or  less  of  detail.  A  large 
number  of  these  were  not  presented  in  such  a  shape  that 
their  claims  could  be  discussed.  But  I  was  able  to  use  786 
of  the  most  important  of  them.  They  were  classified,  the 
essential  matters  transcribed,  and  summed  up  in  the  work  of 
which  I  have  just  spoken.  The  most  striking  thing  in  all 
these  accounts  is  the  loyalty,  conscientiousness,  the  frank- 
ness, and  the  sensitive  refinement  of  the  narrators,  who  are 
anxiously  concerned  to  say  only  what  they  know,  and  as 
they  know  it,  without  adding  or  subtracting  anything.  In 
doing  this,  each  becomes  the  servant  of  truth. 

These  786  letters,  transcribed,  classified,  and  numbered, 
contained  1130  different  facts  or  observations.  My  examina- 
tion of  the  instances  recorded  in  the  letters  reveals  several 
kinds  of  subjects  which  may  be  classified  as  follows: 

Manifestations  and  Apparitions  of  the  Dying. 
Manifestations  of  the  Living  (in  Health). 
Manifestations  and  Apparitions  of  the  Dead. 
Clairvoyance. 

Premonitory  Dreams.     Forecast  of  the  Future. 

376 


MY  GENERAL  INQUIRY  377 

Dreams  that  give  Information  of  the  Dead. 

Meetings  foreseen  bj  Presentiment. 

Presentiments  realized. 

Doubles  of  the  Living. 

Communications  of  Thought  at  a  Distance  (Telepathy). 

Instinctive  Presentiments  of  Animals. 

Calls  heard  at  Great  Distances. 

Movements  of  Objects  without  Apparent  Cause. 

Bolted  Doors  Opening  of  Themselves. 

Haunted  Houses. 

Spiritualistic  Experiments. 

Since  my  first  publication  of  these  documents,  I  have  re- 
■  ceived  many  new  ones.  More  than  one  thousand  are  to-day 
crowded  into  my  manuscript  library.  They  contain  about 
fifteen  hundred  observations  which  seem  to  me  to  be  sincere 
and  authentic.  The  doubtful  ones  have  been  eliminated. 
These  narratives  emanate  as  a  general  thing  from  persons 
who  are  filled  with  astonishment  and  are  extremely  desirous 
of  receiving,  if  possible,  an  explanation  of  these  strange 
events  (often  very  affecting).  All  the  narratives  which  I 
have  been  able  to  verify  have  been  found  to  be  fundamentally 
accurate  —  sometimes  modified  afterwards,  as  respects  their 
mere  form,  by  a  memory  more  or  less  confused. 

In  UlnconnUj  I  published  a  portion  of  these  narra- 
tives. But  I  excluded  from  that  work  *  phenomena  not  prop- 
erly included  within  the  limits  of  its  main  plan,  which  was 
to  show  the  existence  of  unknown  faculties  of  the  soid. 

I  excluded,  I  say,  "  movements  of  objects  without  apparent 

c-ause,"    "  bolted   dooi*s   opening   of  themselves,"    "  haunted 

houses,"   "  Spiritualistic  experiments ;"  that  is  to  say,  the 

very  cases  studied  in  the  present  work,  in  which  I  hoped  to 

*  Several  observations  published  in  that  work  are  however,  connected 
in  subject  with  the  present  one.  For  instance:  a  piano  playing  alone 
(p.  108),  a  door  opening  of  itself  (p.  112),  curtains  shaken  (p.  125), 
extravagant  gambols  of  pieces  of  furniture  (p.  133),  raps  (p.  14G ) , 
bells  ringing  (p.  168),  and  numerous  examples  of  unexplained  dis- 
jturbing  noises  coinciding  with,  deaths. 


378  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

be  able  to  publish  them.  But  space  fails  me.  In  my  de- 
sire to  offer  to  my  readers  a  set  of  records  as  complete  as 
possible,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  them  a  firmly  based  opin- 
ion, I  have  been  swamped  by  the  abundance  of  material,  and, 
can  only  rescue  a  few  of  the  most  interesting  specimens  of 
them  for  presentation  here. 

Eirst  of  all,  I  select  the  following  communication  as  hav- 
ing a  certain  intrinsic  value.  It  w^as  sent  me  by  my  re- 
gretted friend  Victorin  Joncieres,  the  well-known  composer] 
of  music. 

I  was  on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  music-schools  of  the 
Provinces  (he  says),  and  happened  to  be  in  a  city  which 
I  cannot  name  to  you  for  the  reasons  which  I  gave.  I  was 
coming  out  of  the  branch  establishment  of  our  Conservatory, 
after  having  examined  the  piano-class  there,  when  I  was 
addressed  by  a  lady  who  asked  me  w^hat  I  thought  of  her 
daughter,  and  whether  I  judged  that  she  ought  to  enter  upon 
an  artistic  career. 

After  a  rather  long  conversation,  in  the  course  of  which 
I  promised  to  go  to  hear  the  young  artist,  I  found  myself 
engaged  to  go  the  same  evening  (for  I  was  leaving  the  next 
day)  to  the  house  of  one  of  their  friends,  a  high  ofiicial  in 
the  state  service,  to  take  part  in  a  Spiritualistic  seance. 

The  master  of  the  house  received  me  with  extreme  cor- 
dialty,  recalling  the  promise  I  had  given  him  to  keep  secret 
his  name  and  that  of  the  city  in  which  he  lived.  He  pre- 
sented his  niece,  the  medium,  to  whom  he  attributes  the' 
phenomena  wdiich  take  place  in  his  house.  It  w^as,  in  fact, 
after  the  young  girl's  mother  had  died,  and  she  came  to  live 
with  him,  that  the  strange  occurrences  began  to  take  place. 

They  began  w^ith  unusual  noises  in  the  walls,  and  in  the 
floors,  with  the  displacement  of  articles  of  furniture  that; 
moved  without  being  touched,  and  with  the  warblings  of 
birds.  M.  X.  at  first  believed  that  it  was  a  piece  of  foolery 
planned  either  by  one  of  his  own  family  or  by  one  of  his 
clerks.  However,  in  spite  of  the  most  vigilant  w^atching, 
he  could  not  discover  any  trickery,  and  he  finally  came  to  the 


MY  GEIs^EEAL  INQUIRY  379 

conclusion  that  the  phenomena  were  produced  by  invisible 
I  agents,  with  whom  he  believed  he  could  communicate.  He 
Boon  obtained  raps,  direct  ^^Titing,  the  mysterious  appearance 
of  flowers,  etc. 

After  this  accoimt,  he  led  me  into  a  large  room  with  bare 
walls,  in  which  several  persons  had  assembled,  among  whom 
were  his  wife  and  a  professor  of  natural  philosophy  at  the 
lyceum  —  altogether,  a  dozen  of  experimenters.  In  the  mid- 
dle of  the  room  there  was  a  big  oak  table,  upon  which  were 
placed  paper,  a  pencil,  a  small  harmonica,  a  bell,  and  a 
lighted  lamp. 

"  The  spirit  announced  to  me  a  little  while  ago  that  he 
would  come  at  ten  o'clock,"  said  the  gentleman  to  me.  "  We 
have  a  good  hour  before  us.  I  am  going  to  utilize  it  by 
reading  to  you  the  minutes  of  our  meetings  for  a  year  past." 
He  laid  on  the  table  his  watch,  which  showed  five  minutes  to 
nine,  and  covered  it  with  a  handkerchief. 

For  a  whole  hour  he  applied  himself  to  reading  what 
seemed  to  be  very  improbable  stories;  but  I  was  longing  to 
I  see  some  of  the  wonders. 

Suddenly  a  loud  cracking  sound  was  heard  in  the  table. 
M.  X.  lifted  the  handkerchief  which  covered  the  watch.  It 
was  just  ten  o'clock. 

^^  Art  thou  there,  spirit  ?  "  said  he. 

!N^obody  was  touching  the  table ;  and  on  his  recommenda- 
tion, we  formed  the  chain  about  it,  holding  each  other  by 
the  hand. 

A  vigorous  rap  was  heard. 

The  young  niece  placed  her  two  fingers  against  the  edge 
of  the  table  and  asked  us  to  imitate  her.  Thereupon  this 
extremely  heavy  table  rose  up  well  above  our  heads,  in  such 
a  way  that  we  were  obliged  to  stand  on  tip-toe  in  order  to 
follow  it  in  its  ascent.  It  hung  poised  for  some  moments 
in  the  air  and  then  slowly  descended  to  the  floor  and  came 
to  a  stop  without  noise. 

Then  M.  X.  went  to  look  up  a  large  design  for  a  church 
window.  He  put  it  on  the  table  and  placed  beside  it  a  glass 
of  water,  a  box  of  colors,  and  a  camel's  hair  brush.  Then 
he  put  the  lamp  out.  He  lighted  it  again  at  the  end  of  two 
or  three  minutes:  the  sketch  (stiU  damp)  was  painted  in 


380  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

two  colors,  yellow  and  blue,  and  not  a  single  brush  mark 
had  passed  beyond  the  traced  lines  of  the  sketch. 

Even  if  we  admit  that  some  one  of  the  sitters  might  have 
been  able  to  play  the  role  of  spirit,  how,  in  the  darkness  of 
the  room,  could  he  have  so  handled  the  brush  as  to  precisely 
follow  the  lines  of  the  design?  I  will  add  that  the  door 
was  closely  shut,  and,  that,  during  the  very  short  space  of 
time  in  which  the  perfoi-mance  took  place,  I  heard  nothing 
but  the  sound  of  the  water  splashing  in  the  glass. 

Eaps  were  next  struck  in  the  table,  corresponding  to  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet.  The  spirit  announced  that  he  was 
going  to  produce  a  special  phenomenon  in  order  to  convince 
me  personally. 

By  his  order  the  light  was  again  extinguished.  The  har- 
monica then  played  a  little  sprightly  motif,  in  six-eight. 
Scarcely  had  the  last  note  sounded  when  M.  X.  lighted  the 
lamp.  Upon  a  sheet  of  music-paper  which  had  been  placed 
near  the  harmonica,  the  theme  was  written  very  correctly 
in  pencil.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  any  one  of  the 
company,  in  the  complete  darkness  of  the  room,  to  write 
down  these  notes  upon  the  ruled  staff-lines. 

Thirteen  freshly  cut  daisies  lay  scattered  over  the  table. 

''  Hello ! ''  says  M.  X.  ^^  these  are  daisies  from  the  flower- 
pot at  the  end  of  the  passageway.'^ 

As  I  said  a  moment  ago,  the  door  of  the  room  where  we 
were  met  had  remained  closed,  and  no  one  had  stirred.  We 
went  into  the  passageway,  and,  on  noticing  the  stems  denuded 
of  their  flowers,  we  could  see  very  plainly  that  the  daisies 
came  from  the  place  indicated. 

Scarcely  had  we  entered  the  room,  when  the  bell  on  the 
table  rose  up  to  the  very  ceiling,  ringing  as  it  went,  but  fell 
abruptly  back  as  soon  as  it  touched  it. 

On  the  next  day,  before  my  departure,  I  went  to  pay  a 
visit  to  M.  X.  He  received  me  in  his  dining-hall.  Through 
the  large  open  window  a  beautiful  June  sun  flooded  the 
room  with  its  brilliant  light. 

While  we  Avere  conversing  in  a  desultory  way,  a  piece  of 
military  music  rang  out  in  the  distance.  "  If  there  is  a 
spirit  here,"  said  I,  smiling,  ^'  it  ought  by  rights  to  accom- 


MY  GENERAL  INQUIRY  381 

pany  the  music."  At  once  rhythmic  taps,  in  exact  harmony 
With  the  double  quick  time,  were  heard  in  the  table.  The 
crackle  of  sounds  in  it  died  away  little  by  little  in  a  decres- 
bendo  very  skilfully  timed  to  the  last  vanishing  blare  of  the 
ibugles. 

"  Give  us  a  fine  tattoo  to  finish,"  said  I,  when  the  sounds 
had  completely  ceased.  The  reply  was  a  series  of  soimds 
like  the  heavy  roll  of  drums,  given  with  such  force  that  the 
'table  trembled  on  its  legs.  I  put  my  hand  on  it  and  very 
plainly  felt  the  vibrations  of  the  wood  as  it  was  struck  by 
the  invisible  force. 

I  asked  if  I  might  inspect  the  table.  It  was  turned  up- 
side dowm  in  my  presence,  and  I  examined  it,  as  well  as 
the  floor,  very  carefully.  I  discovered  nothing.  Besides, 
M.  X.  could  not,  you  know,  foresee,  that,  during  my  visit, 
a  military  band  would  pass  by,  and  that  I  should  ask  the 
table  to  accompany  it  by  imitating  the  drum. 

I  afterAvards  returned  to  the  city  where  these  things  oc- 
curred and  was  present  at  other  very  curious  seances.  I 
should  be  enchanted,  my  dear  master  and  friend,  as  I  have 
said  to  you,  to  be  your  guide  there  some  day.  But  this 
"  high  functionary  "  absolutely  insists  on  his  incognito. 

These  remarkable  observations  by  my  friend  Joncieres 
evidently  have  their  value,  and  belong  here,  in  the  train  of 
all  the  preceding  ones. 

I  give  a  few  others  below  which  we  owe  to  an  attentive 
and  sceptical  observer,  M.  Castex-Degrange,  sub-director  of 
the  National  School  of  Eine  Arts  at  Lyons,  upon  whose 
veracity  and  sincerity  not  the  least  shadow  of  suspicion  can 
rest,  any  more  than  in  the  preceding  instances.  I  owe  to 
his  kindness  a  large  number  of  interesting  letters,  and  I  will 
ask  his  pennission  to  cite  from  them  the  most  important  pas- 
sages. 

The  following  is  dated  the  18th  of  April,  1899. 

For  the  second  time,  I  affirm  upon  my  honor  that  I  will 
tell  you  nothing  that  is  not  strictly  true,  and  usually  easy  to 
verify. 


n 

382  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES  | 

In  spite  of  the  calling  I  follow,  I  am  not  at  all  gifted 
with  imagination.  I  have  lived  much  in  the  company  of 
physicians,  men  from  the  nature  of  their  profession  little  0 
given  to  credulity;  and,  whether  it  is  in  consequence  of  my 
natural  disposition,  or  by  reason  of  the  principles  which  I 
absorbed  in  this  kind  of  company,  I  have  always  been  very 
sceptical. 

This  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  reasons  why  I  abandoned  my  \-m 
psychical  experiments.  I  reached  the  most  stupifying  re- 
sults, and  yet  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  get  to  believe 
myself.  I  was  thoroughly  convinced  that  I  was  not  seeking 
to  deceive  myself  or  to  deceive  others,  and,  not  being  able 
to  surrender  myself  to  the  evidence,  I  was  always  seeking 
some  other  reason  than  the  one  given  by  the  believers.  That  'Je! 
made  me  suffer,  and  I  stopped.  :• 

I  here  end  this  preamble,  and  am  going  to  unfold  to  you  ilfiii 
the  course  of  my  observations.  m^i 

I  was  acquainted  with  a  company  of  people,  who  werejisd 
occupied  with  Spiritualism  and  with  turning-tables,  and  had  i  h 
made  them  the  butt  of  my  wit,*  a  little;  for,  although  not    k, 
bitter  or  severe,  I  never  neglected  to  play  a  good  practical 
joke  on  them  when  occasion  served. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  these  worthy  people,  who  were,  more-  z 
over,  very  sincere,  were  all  a  little  "  cracked ''  (mahoules),  iji 
if  I  may  be  allowed  so  uncouth,  or  fin  de  siecle,  an  expression.  '^  *•; 

One  day  I  was  visiting  them.  The  drawing-room  was 
lighted  by  two  large  windows.  I  began,  as  usual,  by  some 
pleasantries.  Their  reply  was  in  the  shape  of  an  invitation 
to  me  to  take  part  in  the  experiments. 

"  But,"  said  I,  ^^  if  I  take  a  seat  at  your  table  it  will  not 
turn  any  more,  because  I  shall  not  push  it." 

"  Come  all  the  same."  T  I- 

Well,  I  declare  uj^on  my  honor  that,  just  for  a  joke,  I 
tried  it.  I  had  scarcely  put  my  hands  on  the  table  when  it 
made  a  rush  at  me. 

I  said  to  the  person  facing  me,  ^'  Don't  push  so  hard." 


( 


!'lfr, 


*  The  word  used  here  by  M.  Castex-D^grange  is  tcte  de  Tiirc,  a  thing 
like  tlie  loather-eoveied  bags  in  our  gymnasiums,  and  used  in  fairs  in 
France,  to  be  pummelled  by  those  wishing  to  try  their  strength. —  Trans. 


MY  GE:N^EEAL  i:t^QUIIlY  383 

"  But,  dear  sir,  I  was  not  pushing." 

I  put  the  centre-table  back  in  its  place,  but  the  same  thing 
bccurred  again,  once,  twice,  thrice.  I  began  to  get  impatient 
and  saidj 

"  What  you  are  doing  is  not  very  clever.  If  you  want  to 
convince  me,  don't  push.'' 

He  replied  to  me,  '^  iN'obody  is  pushing,  only  you  probably 
ave  so  much  fluid  in  you  that  the  table  is  attracted  toward 
jrou.     Perhaps  you  could  make  it  go,  hy  yourself/* 

"  Oh,  if  I  myself  could  make  it  go,  that  would  be  differ- 
ent!" 

"  Try  it." 

They  all  moved  back.  I  remained  alone  face  to  face  with 
the  table.  I  took  hold  of  it,  lifted  it,  thoroughly  examined 
it.  There  was  no  trick  about  it.  I  made  every  body  go 
ibehind  me.  I  was  facing  the  w^indows,  and  had  my  eyes 
open,  I  assure  you.  I  stretched  my  arms  out  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, in  order  to  have  a  good  view,  only  placing  the  ends  of 
my  fingers  on  the  table. 

In  a  little  less  than  two  minutes  it  began  to  rock  to  and 
fro.  I  confess  that  I  felt  a  little  foolish,  not  wishing  to 
surrender  — 

''  Yes,  perhaps  it  moves,"  said  I.  "  It  is  possible  that  an 
unknown  fluid  is  acting  upon  it;  at  any  rate,  it  does  not 
come  toward  me,  and  just  now  some  one  was  pushing  it." 

"  Ko,"  said  one  of  the  sitters,  "  nobody  was  pushing  it ; 
but,  although  you  are  highly  charged  with  fluid,  the  assist- 
ance of  another  person  is  needed  for  the  production  of  the 
phenomenon:  you  are  not  enough  by  yourself.  Will  you 
allow  one  of  us  to  put  a  hand  upon  yours,  without  touching 
the  table '?  " 

"  Yes." 

Someone  put  a  hand  on  mine  and  I  ivatclied.  The  table 
at  once  began  to  move,  and  came  and  pressed  against  me. 
They  all  cried  out,  and  claimed  that  they  had  caught  a 
medium  in  me.  I  was  not  very  much  flattered  with  the 
title,  which  I  considered  as  synonymous  with  "  lunatic." 

"  You  ought  to  try  to  write,"  said  some  one  to  me. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  " 

"  Why,  see  here.     You  take  paper  and  pen,  let  your  arm 


i 


384:  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

lie  passive,  and  have  the  wish  in  your  mind  that  soine  un-, 
known  person  or  force  shall  cause  you  to  write." 

I  tried  it.  At  the  end  of  five  minutes,  my  arm  felt  as 
if  it  were  wrapped  in  a  woolen  blanket.  Then,  in  spite  of 
myself,  my  hand  began  to  trace  at  first  mere  strokes,  then 
o'Sj  as,  letters  of  all  sorts,  as  a  schoolboy  learning  to  write i 
would  do.  Then,  all  of  a  sudden,  came  the  notorious  word 
attributed  to  Cambronne  at  Waterloo !  I  assure  you,  mj" 
dear  sir,  that  I  am  never  in  the  habit  of  using  this  coarse; 
and  dirty  term,  and  that  there  was  no  auto-suggestion,, 
or  unconscious  act  of  my  own,  in  the  case.  I  was  absolutely! 
stupefied  by  the  occurrence. 

I  continued  these  experiments  at  my  own  home. 

1.  One  day,  wdien  I  was  seated  at  my  writing-desk,  Ii 
felt  the  weird  seizure  in  my  arm.  I  let  my  arm  remain  pas- 
sive.    The  Unknown  wrote: 

"  Your  friend  Aroud  is  coming  to  see  you.  He  is  at  this 
moment  in  such  and  such  an  omnibus-office  in  the  suburbs. 
He  is  asking  the  price  of  tickets  and  the  hour  of  departure." 

(This  M.  Aroud  is  chief  of  the  bureau  of  police,  prefecture 
of  the  Rhone.)  In  fact,  a  half -hour  afterwards,  Aroud  made 
his  appearance.      I  told  him  what  had  taken  place. 

"  It  is  a  good  thing  for  you  that  you  are  living  in  the 
nineteenth  century,"  said  he  to  me.  "  A  few  hundred  years 
ago  you  would  not  have  escaped  death  at  the  stake." 

2.  On  another  occasion  the  phenomenon  occurred  again, 
and  this  time  also  I  was  at  my  writing  desk: 

^^  Your  friend  Dolard  is  coming  to  see  you." 
An  hour  afterward,  sure  enough  he  came.  I  told  him 
how  it  happened  that  I  was  waiting  for  him.  Although  he 
was  very  incredulous  by  nature,  yet,  for  all  that,  this  fact 
set  him  to  thinking.  The  next  day  saw  his  re-appearance. 
"  Can  you  get  a  reply  to  a  question  I  am  going  to  ask 
you  ?  "  said  he. 

"  Don't  ask,"  I  replied,  "  think  it.     We  will  try." 
I  must  here  tell  you  parenthetically  that  I  had  known  of 
Dolard  for  thirty  years.     He  was  my  comrade  at  the  Beaux- 
Arts.     I  knew  that  lie   had  lost  an  elder  brother,   that  he 
had  been  married,  and  had  had  the  misfortune  to  lose,  one 


MY  GE:N^EKAL  INQUIEY  385 

)y  one,  all  the  members  of  liis  family.  That  was  all  I 
mew  about  them. 

I  took  the  pen  and  the  Invisible  wrote,  ^^  The  sufferings 
if  Tour  sister  Sophia  have  just  ended." 

is^'ow  Dolard  had  mentally  asked  what  had  become  of  the 
;pirit  of  a  sister  named  Sophia,  whom  he  had  lost  forty-two 
rears  ago,  and  about  whom  I  had  never  heard  a  word  spoken. 

3.  My  principal  at  the  School  of  Fine  Arts  in  Lyons, 
I  former  architect  of  the  city  of  Paris,  was  M.  Hedin.  This 
M.  Hedin  had  an  only  daughter,  who  some  years  ago  had 
.narried  another  architect,  M.  Forget,  in  Paris.  The  woman 
became  enceinte. 

One  day  when  I  was  thinking  of  anything  but  her,  the 
hame  thing  occurred  as  before.     The  Invisible  wrote: 

"  Mme.  Forget  is  going  to  die." 

Mme.  Forget  was  not  at  all  ill,  apart  from  her  being  in  a 
delicate  situation.  The  next  day  morning,  M.  Hedin  said  to 
ne  that  his  daughter  was  in  her  pains ;  and  the  same  evening 
le  told  me  that  his  wdfe  had  just  set  out  for  Paris  to  be 
with  her.  The  next  day  I  received  instructions  to  assume 
;ais  duties.  Mme.  Hedin  had  telegraphed  to  her  husband  to 
,3ome  to  her.  Her  daughter  was  taken  with  puerperal  fever. 
When  the  father  got  there  he  found  only  a  corpse. 

4.  I  had  a  cousin  named  Poncet  (since  dead)  who  was 
formerly  an  apothecary,  at  Beaune  (C6te-d'  Or).  I  had 
never  been  at  his  apartments.  One  day  he  came  to  Lyons 
to  see  our  aunt  (she  who  had  the  vision  about  which  I  spoke 
to  you).  We  conversed  about  these  extraordinary  psychical 
loccurrences.     He  was  incredulous. . 

'^  Well  then,"  said  he,  "  try  to  find  for  me  a  thing  which 
has  no  particular  market  value,  but  which  I  laid  great  store 
by,  because  it  belonged  to  my  deceased  ^yife.  I  had  a  little 
.packet  of  laces  that  she  was  very  fond  of,  and  I  can't  put  my 
hand  on  it." 

The  Unknown  wrote,  ''  It  is  in  the  middle  drawer  of  the 
secretary  in  the  chamber,  behind  a  pacJcage  of  visiting  cards/* 

My  cousin  wrote  to  his  servant  at  Beaune,  without  giving 
her  any  hint  of  our  experiment,  ^'  Send  by  post  a  little 
packet  which  you  will  find  in  [such  a  place]  behind  a  package 
of  visiting  cards." 


386  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

The  laces  arrived  by  return  raail. 

You  will  notice,  my  dear  sir,  that,  during  the  experi- 
ments, I  was  by  no  means  asleep  or  in  a  state  of  trance, 
and  that  I  was  conversing  in  my  usual  manner. 

5.  One  of  my  childhood  friends,  M.  Laloge,  at  the  present 
time  a  dealer  in  coffees  and  chocolates  at  Saint-Etienne 
(Loire),  had  had  as  his  professor,  as  well  as  I,  an  excellent 
man  whom  we  most  highly  esteemed,  and  who  was  named 
Thollon.* 

M.  Thollon,  after  having  directed  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  Prince  of  Oldenburg,  uncle  of  the  present 
emperor  of  Russia,  had  returned  to  France  and  entered  the 
Nice  Observatory. 

We  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  him  shortly  after.  Laloge 
had  a  photograj^h  of  him  but  had  lost  it.  Lie  came  and 
begged  me  to  try  to  find  it.  The  Unknown  wrote,  "  The  pho- 
tograph is  in  the  upper  draiuer  of  the  secretary  in  the  chain- 
her." 

Laloge  had  two  rooms, —  one  which  he  called  the  ^'  salon,*' 
and  another  called  the  '^  chamber." 

''  There  is  some  mistake,''  said  he.  ^'  I  have  turned  every- 
thing topsy-turvy  in  the  place  you  mention  and  have  found 
nothing." 

In  the  evening  having  to  search  for  some  object  in  the 
drawer,  he  saw  in  the  middle  of  a  package  of  letter-papei 
a  little  dark  end  of  something  sticking  out.  He  pulled  i1 
forth:  it  was  the  photograph. 

6.  Camilla  Bellon,  No.  50  Avenue  de  Noailles,  at  Lyons. 
had  three  young  children  whose  education  he  had  intrustec 
to  a  young  governess.  This  person  left  when  the  childrer 
entered  college,  and,  sometime  after,  she  married  a  verj 
fine  man,  whose  name  I  have  unfortunately  forgotten,  bui 
which  I  can  easily  find  again  if  there  is  any  need  of  it. 

This  young  woman  came  on  her  wedding  trip  to  visi" 
her  old  employer.  I  w^as  invited  to  go  and  pass  a  day  witl 
them  at  the  chateau  of  my  friend  Bollon.  During  the  course 
of  this  visit,  we  talked  of  spiritualistic  phenomena ;  and  th( 

*  I  had  considerable  acquaintance  with  him  at  the  Nice  Observatory 
where,  in  1884  and  1885,  I  made  with  him  spectroscopic  observation: 
on  the  rotation  of  tlie  sun. —  C.  F. 


MY  GEXEEAL  INQUIRY  387 

newly  married  man,  a  highly  educated  veterinary  doctor, 
joked  me  about  my  so-called  mediumship.  I  of  course 
laughed  about  it  and  we  parted  the  best  kind  of  friends. 

Some  days  afterw^ard,  I  received  a  letter  from  my  friend. 
He  had  himself  received  a  letter  from  the  young  lady,  who 
iwas  in  a  great  state  of  mind.  She  had  lost  her  wedding 
ring,  and  was  in  despair.  She  begged  my  friend  to  ask  me 
;to  recover  it  for  her. 

I  The  Mysterious  Force  wrote,  ''  The  ring  slipped  from 
tJier  finger  while  she  was  asleep.  It  is  on  one  of  the  cleats 
which  hold  up  the  mattress  of  the  hed/' 
I  I  transmitted  the  despatch.  The  husband  put  his  hands 
between  the  wood  of  the  bed  and  the  mattress.  The  wdfe 
did  the  same  thing.  Xothing  w^as  found.  Some  days  after- 
wards, having  decided  to  change  the  arrangement  of  their 

■  apartments,  they  moved  their  bed  into  another  room.  Of 
-course  they  had  to  lift  up  the  mattress,  in  order  to  get  it 
into  the  other  chamber.  The  ring  was  upon  one  of  the 
cleats.  They  had  not  found  it  when  they  were  hunting 
for  it,  because  it  had  slipped  under  the  mattress,  which  did 
not  adhere  to  the  cleat  in  that  particular  place. 

)     7.  One  of  my  friends,  named  Boucaut,  who  lived  at  15 

■  quai  de  la  Guillotiere  at  Lyons,  had  lost  a  letter  which  he 
I  sadly  wanted.     He  begged  me  to  ask  where  it  was. 

The  Invisible  replied  in  w^riting,   ''  He  must  rememher 
.that  he  has  an  oven  in  his  garden.'' 

;      Before  showing  it  to  him,  I  began  to  laugh,  saying  that 
it  was  a  joke  and  had  nothing  to  do  wdth  his  request.     As  he 
1  insisted  that  it  did,  I  read  it  to  him. 

I      "  Why  yes,"  he  said  to  me,  "that  agrees  very  well.     My 

;  tenant-farmer  had  just  had  his  bread  baked.     I  had  heaps  of 

:  papers  which  I  wanted  to  get  rid  of,  to  burn  up.     My  letter 

must  have  been  burned  in  the  pile  w^hich  I  reduced  to  ashes." 

8.  One  evening,  in  an  assembly  composed  of  a  score  of 

persons,  a  lady  dressed  in  black  greeted  my  entrance  with  a 

little  nervous  laugh.    After  the  customary  introductions,  this 

lady  spoke  to  me  as  follows: 

"  Sir,  would  it  be  possible  to  ask  your  spirits  to  reply  to  a 
question  I  am  going  to  ask  you  ?  " 

"  In  the  first  place,  madam,  I  have  no  spirits  at  my  dis- 


388  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

posal ;  but  I  should  be  a  lack-wit  indeed  if  I  said  yes.    You  \ 
of  course,  don't  suppose  that  I  am  unintelligent  enough  noi  j 
to  find  some  kind  of  an  answer;  and,  consequently,  if  an^ 
'  spirits,'   as  you  so  kindly  call  them  should  happen  to  re 
spond,  you  would  not  be  convinced,  and  you  would  be  right. 
Write  your  request.     Put  it  in   an  envelope   there  on  the 
table,  and  we  will  try.     You  see  that  I  am  not  in  a  somnam-l 
bulistic  state,  and  you  must  believe  that  it  is  wholly  im-| 
possible  for  me  to  know  the  contents  of  what  you  are  goin^ 
to  enclose  in  it." 

So  said,  so  done. 

At  the  end  of  five  minutes  I  assure  you  I  was  very  mucl 
embarrassed.  I  had  written  a  reply,  but  it  was  such  tha 
I  did  not  dare  to  communicate  it     Put  here  it  is: 

"  You  are  in  a  very  bad  way,  and,  if  you  persist,  yor 
will  be  severely  punished.  Marriage  is  something  sacred 
it  should  never  be  regarded  as  a  question  of  money." 

After  some  oratorical  precautions,  I  decided  to  read  hei 
this  reply.  The  lady  blushed  u])  to  the  roots  of  her  haii 
and  stretched  out  her  hands  to  seize  her  envelope. 

"  Pardon  me,  madam,"  I  replied,  putting  my  hand  upon  it 
^'  You  began  by  making  fun  of  me.  You  washed  a  reply 
It  is  only  just,  since  we  are  making  an  experiment,  that  w( 
know  what  the  request  was." 

I  tore  open  the  envelope.     Pehold  its  contents: 

"  Will  the  marriage  take  place  that  I  am  trying  to  brin^ 
about  between  M.  X.  and  Mile.  Z  ?  And,  in  that  case,  shal 
I  get  what  I  have  been  promised  ?  " 

Notwithstanding  this  shameful  exposure,  the  woman  die 
not  consider  that  she  was  beaten.  She  asked  a  second  ques 
tion  under  the  same  conditions. 

Reply :  "  Leave  me  alone !  When  I  was  living  you  aban 
doned  me.     Now  don't  bother  me." 

Upon  this,  the  lady  got  up  and  disappeared !  I  told  yoi 
she  was  in  mourning.  This  last  request  of  hers  was  as  fol 
lows :     "  What  has  become  of  the  soul  of  my  father  ?  " 

Her  father  had  been  ill  for  six  months.  Persons  who  wer( 
present  and  who  were  stupefied  at  the  results,  told  me  tha 
during  his  illness  she  had  not  paid  him  a  single  visit. 

9.  One  day,  shortly  after  I  had  lost  one  of  my  good  friends 


MY  GE:N'ERAL  inquiry  389 

I  Avas  seated  at  mj  writing-desk  with  my  head  resting  on 
mj  hand,  and  I  was  thinking  of  what  the  hereafter  might 
,  possibly  be.  If  all  the  work  that  a  man  had  done  was  to  be 
irretrievably  lost,  and  if  the  beyond  existed,  I  was  wonder- 
ing what  the  life  might  be  that  one  would  lead  there.  All 
of  a  sudden,  the  phenomenon  well  known  to  me  occurred 
(that  weird  seizure  of  the  arm).  Of  course,  I  allowed  my 
arm  to  remain  passive,  and  here  is  what  I  read; 

''  You  wish  to  know  what  our  occupations  are  ?  We  or- 
ganize matter,  w^e  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  spirits,  and, 
above  all,  we  adore  the  Creator  of  your  souls  and  ours." 

Arago. 

I      In  all  the  communications  which  I  have  obtained,  every 

j-itime  a  word  representing  an  idea  of  the  Supreme  Being — • 

such  as  God,  the  All-Powerful,  etc. —  came  under  my  pen, 

the  writing  doubled  in  size,  but  immediately  after  resumed 

,  ,the  same  dimensions  as  before."^     It  would  be  very  easy  for 

:  I  me  to  give  you  still  more  numerous  examples  of  the  strange 

things  that  happened  to  me,  but  those  I  have  given  seem  to 

me  quite  remarkable.     I  shall  be  happy  if  this  true  account 

.   can  give  you  any  assistance  in  your  important  researches. 


f 


The  letter  which  my  readers  have  just  perused  contains 

; ;  a  series  of  cases  of  such  great  interest  that  I  lost  no  time  in 

L  entering  into  regular  correspondence  with  the  author.     And 

first  I  thought  I  ought  to  ask  him  about  the  conclusions  which 

he  himself  had  been  able  to  draw  from  his  personal  expe- 

. '  rience.     The  following  is  an  abstract  of  his  replies : 

J- 

May  1st,  1899. 

,,      You  ask  me,  my  dear  sir,  the  following  questions : 
|j     1.  Whether  I  have  reached  absolute  conviction  as  to  the 
existence  of  one  or  of  several  spirits? 

I    am    a    person    of    absolute    good    faith.     I    examined 

*  In  the  stances  of  -which  I  spoke  in  the  early  part  of  this  book  (sec- 
ond chapter),  when  the  word  "God"  was  dictated  the  table  beat  a 
salute.— C.  F. 


390  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

myself  as  a  surgeon  would  examine  an  invalid.  I  am  a 
person  of  such  good  faitli  that  I  have  long  been  seeking 
(without  finding  him)  a  skilful  practitioner  who  would 
consent  to  study  in  my  own  person  the  phenomenon  w^hile 
it  was  taking  place;  to  ascertain  the  state  of  my  pulse,  the 
warmth  of  the  skin,  etc., —  in  a  word,  the  apparent  physical 
side.  Furthermore,  in  my  opinion  there  is  no  auto-sug- 
gestion in  this  thing;  and  the  proof  is  that  I  was  absolutely 
ignorant  of  the  things  that  I  was  writing  mechanically, — 
so  mechanically  that,  when,  by  chance,  my  attention  was 
called  away,  whether  by  reading  or  by  conversation,  and  I 
forgot  to  look  w^here  my  hand  was  going,  when  it  approached 
the  edge  of  the  paper  the  writing  would  continue  backward 
across  the  sheet  in  reversed  letters  and  just  as  fast,  so  that  I 
was  obliged  to  turn  the  paper  over  in  order  by  holding  it  to 
the  light  to  read  what  was  written  on  it. 

So  then,  if  there  is  neither  auto-suggestion  in  it,  nor  a 
somnambulistic  condition  (I  was  completely  awake  and  not 
at  all  hypnotized),  then  there  must  be  external  '^forces" 
acting  upon  my  senses,  '^  intelligent  forces.''  This  is  my 
fixed  and  unalterable  opinion. 

Now  are  these  forces  spirits  ?  Do  they  belong  to  beings 
like  ourselves  ?  It  is  evident  that  this  hypothesis  would 
explain  many  things,  but  leave  quite  a  number  obscure. 
Since  I  several  times  discovered  a  mental  state  of  the  lowest 
kind  among  these  "  beings,"  I  have  reached  a  conclusion 
that  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  think  that  they  are 
<^  men." 

We  are  told  that  there  are  stars  which  photogTaphy  alone 
can  reveal,  and  which,  possessing  a  color  imperceptible  to 
our  eye,  are  invisible  to  us.  Tben  there  are  the  gases  through 
which  a  human  body  passes  without  experiencing  resistence. 
Who  will  say  then,  that  there  are  not  around  us  invisible 
beings  ? 

And  look  at  the  instinct  of  the  child,  of  tho  woman,  of 
feeble  beings  in  general.  They  fear  darkness;  isolation 
makes  them  afraid.  This  sentiment  is  instinctive,  irra- 
tional. Is  it  not  due  to  an  intuitive  perception  of  the 
presence  of  these  invisible  personages,  or  forces,  against 
which  they  are  helpless  ?     That  is  pure  hypothesis  on  my 


MY  GENEEAL  IKQUIEY  391 

part,  but  after  all  it  seems  to  me  defensible.  As  to  tbe 
umber  of  the  invisible  beings,  I  believe  tbej  are  legion. 

2.  You  ask  me  whether  I  have  been  able  to  establish  their 
Identity. 

I  answer  that  they  sign  some  name  or  other,  choosing  in 
oreference  names  of  illustrious  persons,  in  whose  mouths 
|they  sometimes  put  the  most  stupid  sort  of  expressions. 

Furthermore  the  writing  frequently  ceases  abruptly,  as 
f  an  electric  current  has  just  been  interrupted,  and  that 
without  any  appreciable  reason.  Then  the  writing  changes, 
md  sometimes  sensible  things  end  in  absurdities,  etc. 

How  explain  this  tangle  of  contradictions  ?  I  was  so 
;hafed  and  fretted  by  these  incoherent  results  that  I  had 
[or  a  long  time  abandoned  the  study  of  psychic  forces,  when 
rour  alluring  researches  came  to  wake  in  me  my  old  self. 

If  the  unconscious  doubling  of  the  personality  of  the  in- 
lividual  (his  externalization)  can^  in  an  extreme  case,  be 
jometimes  admitted,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  cases 
n  which  this  explanation  becomes  possible. 

But  I  will  explain.  If,  as  respects  the  facts  which  hap- 
pened to  me  personally,  and  the  authenticity  of  which  I 
ffirm  to  you  upon  my  honor,  there  are  some  in  w^hich  this 
3xternalization  could  have  been  possible,  there  are  others 
n  which  it  seems  to  me  impossible. 

Yes,  strictly  speaking,  I  might  have  been  able,  without 
inspecting  it,  to  externalize  myself,  or,  rather,  unknown  to 
nyself,  to  be  influenced  by  my  friend  Dolard  when,  in  my 

IDwn  presence,  he  mentally  asked  me  what  had  become  of  the 
>oul  of  a  deceased  sister  of  whose  name  and  very  existence 
[  was  ignorant ;  yes,  the  same  thing  may,  strictly  speaking, 
Bxplain  the  responses  I  made  to  the  lady  who  questioned  me 
3n  the  subject  of  a  marriage  and  her  father,   although  it 
would  in  that  case  be  necessary  to  suppose  that  she  dictated 
:o  me  the  words  that  I  was  writing;  yes,  my  friend  Boucaud, 
:  ivho  was   hunting  letters,   might,   at  the  moment  when  he 
I  was  asking  me  about  them,  have  thought  of  that  oven,  of 
zhe  existence  of  which  I  was  ignorant ;  yes,  all  of  that  is 
(in  the  last  analysis)    possible,   although  it  would  need  a 
large  amount  of  good  will  to  admit  it. 
Yes,  once  more  I  say  —  and  always  with  much  good  will 


392  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

—  a  table  may  be  under  the  unconscious  domination  of  a 
musician  present  and  dictate  a  musical  phrase.  But,  as  it 
stands,  it  is  difficult  to  admit  the  same  phenomenon  in  the 
case  of  Victor  Hugo,  whose  curious  seances  you  have  just 
described  to  the  public.  Why,  just  look  at  this  great  poet 
who,  when  he  is  asked  by  the  table  to  put  one  or  more  ques- 
tions in  verse,  and,  not  feeling  that  he  is  man  enough,  in 
spite  of  his  genius,  to  improvise  something  passable,  asks 
for  a  breathing  spell  to  prepare  his  questions,  and  brings 
them  in  next  day ! —  and  yet  you  would  wish  that,  on  this 
same  next  day,  a  part  of  himself  should  perform  its  func- 
tions, unknown  to  himself,  and  compose  illico,  without  any 
preparation,  verses  at  least  as  fine  as  those  which  he  took 
an  entire  day  to  create ! —  verses  of  a  pitiless  logic  and 
more  profound  than  his  own! 

Yet  let  us  admit  even  that.  You  see,  dear  sir,  that  I 
have  all  the  good  will  possible,  and  that  I  have  the  most 
profound  respect  for  the  scientific  method.  But  can  you 
explain  by  externalization  the  case  of  finding  a  lost  object 
when  one  is  even  ignorant  of  the  way  in  which  the  apartment 
is  arranged  where  it  has  been  lost  ?  or  the  ability  to  know, 
two  days  in  advance,  of  the  death  of  a  person  about  whom 
one  was  not  thinking  at  all  ?  A  possible  coincidence,  you 
will  tell  me,  but  at  least  very  strange. 

And  those  inverted  dictations  ?  and  those  in  which  we  are 
obliged  to  skip  every  other  letter? 
*  -Jf  -x-  *  *  *  * 

'Noy  I  believe  that  we  need  not  give  ourselves  so  much 
trouble  and  rack  our  brains,  for  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is 
like  looking  for  mid-day  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  It 
would  require  the  labor  of  all  the  devils  to  explain  how  this 
phenomenon  can  take  place  in  our  nature  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  proprietor.  I  do  not  like  to  see  a  part  of  mj 
personality  scampering  away,  and  then  housing  itself  again 
without  my  knowung  anything  about  it. 

As  to  what  concerns  the  production  of  this  externaliza- 
tion in  a  way  which  I  may  call  voluntary  —  when  a  persor 
who  feels  himself  dying  thinks  intensely  about  those  whoir 
he  loves  and  whose  absence  ho  deplores,  yes,  it  may  be  thai 
his  will,  even  unknown   to  himself,   suggesting  the   absen 


^| 


MY  GENERAL  INQUIRY  393 

person  produces  the  phenomena  of  telepathy;  but,  in  the 
phenomena  of  which  we  are  speaking,  that  explanation  seems 
to  me  more  than  doubtful. 

I  find  much  more  simple  the  explanation  that  the  phe- 
nomena are  caused  by  the  presence  and  the  action  of  an 
independent  being, —  a  spirit,  phantasm,  or  elemental. 

In  fine  what  are  we  all  seeking?  The  proof  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  ego,  of  the  individuality  after  death.  To  he  or 
not  to  he  —  it  is  all  in  that.  For  I  frankly  confess  to  you 
if  I  am  going  to  dissolve  away  again  into  the  great  All,  I 
should  just  as  soon  be  annihilated.  That  is  perhaps  a  weak- 
ness; but  it  cannot  be  helped.  I  hold  above  everything  else 
to  my  individuality;  not  that  I  set  a  great  value  on  it,  but 
the  feeling  is  instinctive  and  I  believe  that  at  bottom  every- 
body is  of  this  opinion.  This  then  is  the  goal  or  end,  which 
at  all  epochs  has  powerfully  interested  man  and  interests 
him  still  to-day. 

One  of  the  weightiest  proofs  of  the  survival  of  the  indi- 
vidual being  that  I  have  ever  met  with  is,  in  my  opinion, 
the  vision  which  my  aunt  had  several  days  after  the  death 
of  a  friend  of  hers  who,  in  order  to  give  her  a  proof  of  the 
reality  of  her  apparition,  inspired  in  her  by  mental  sugges- 
tion the  power  of  seeing  her  in  the  dress  she  had  on  in  her 
coffin,  a  costume  which  my  aunt  had  never  seen. 

This  is  one  of  the  fine  and  rare  argiiments  in  favor  of 
the  survival  of  the  soul,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes.  Many 
things  are  explained  b}"  this  survival, —  above  all,  what  is 
apparently  the  frightful  injustice  of  this  world. 

To  these  important  observations  of  M.  Castex-Degrange, 
I  should  like  to  add  those  of  a  distinguished  scientist,  who 
has  also  for  a  long  time  now  devoted  himself  to  the  analysis 
and  synthesis  of  these  phenomena.  I  mean  M.  Goupil. 
Some  of  his  studies  are  yet  in  manuscript  form,  and  I  am 
indebted  to  this  savant  for  permission  to  use  them.  Others 
have  been  reprinted  in  a  curious  brochure  (Pour  et  Contre, 
Tours,  1893).  But  in  citing  such  a  large  number  of  in- 
stances and  experiments,  I  am  abusing  the  kindness  of  my 


394  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

readers,  even  the  most  curious  and  the  most  eager  for  knowl- 
edge. However,  I  will  at  least  point  out  the  conclusions 
dra^^^l  by  M.  Goupil  from  his  personal  experiences.  They 
are  to  be  found  in  the  w^ork  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  and 
are  as  follows; 

Table-turning  seances  yield  very  insignificant  results,  re- 
garded as  pure  science  obtained  from  the  spirits;  but  they 
are  not  lacking  in  interest  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
analysis  of  the  facts  and  of  the  science  to  be  established  in 
accordance  with  the  causes  and  the  laws  which  govern  these 
phenomena. 

I  believe  that  I  can  draw^  the  conclusion  from  these  phe- 
nomena that  two  theories  (the  reflex  and  the  Spiritualistic) 
may  be  drawTi  from  the  facts.  It  seems  to  me  impossible 
to  maintain  that  an  intelligent  agent  other  than  that  of  the 
experimenters  is  not  operative  in  them.  What  is  this  intel- 
ligence ?  I  believe  it  is  very  hazardous  to  express  a  confi- 
dent opinion  on  this  point  in  view^  of  the  incongruity  of  all 
these  communications. 

It  is  also  undeniable  that  the  intellects  of  the  operators 
enter  into  the  phenomena  to  a  great  extent,  and  that  in  many 
cases  they  alone  seem  to  act. 

I  should  perhaps  be  sufficiently  near  the  truth  if  I  gave 
the  following  definition  of  the  phenomenon : 

Functions  external  to  the  animistic  principle  of  the  opera- 
tors, and  above  all  of  the  medium,  and  governed  by  theii 
intellects,  but  sometimes  associated  with  an  intellect  un- 
known and  relatively  independent  of  man. 

Experimenters  have  maintained  that  communications  ob 
tained  from  the  so-called  spirits  through  mediums  nevei 
show  more  intellectual  capacity  than  is  possessed  by  the  mos 
intelligent  person  among  the  sitters.  This  assertion  is  gen 
erally  justified,  but  it  is  not  absolute. 

I  will  mention,  in  connection  with  this  point,  some  seance 
■which  took  place  at  my  house.  The  medium  was  Mme.  G. 
whose  life  I  had  been  familiar  with  for  twenty-seven  years 
day  by  day,  and  consequently  had  an  intimate  acquaintanc 
with  her  character,  her  manners,  temperament  and  educatior 


MY  GEISTERAL  IIS^QUIRY  396 

The  communications  which  were  obtained  through  me- 
diumistic  writing  in  these  seances  extended  over  a  period  of 
more  than  fifteen  months. 

;     Mme.  G.  had  the  sense  of  a  kind  of  mental,  rather  than 
•auricular,   psychical   rather   than   physical,    audition   which 
dictated  to  her  what  she  had  to  write  in  bits  of  sentences 
one   after   another;    and   this   impression  was   accompanied 
by  a  strong  desire  to  write,  somewhat  like  the  intense  long- 
jing  that  a  woman  with  child  experiences. 
I      If  this  medium  gave  her  attention  to  the  sense  of  the 
writing  during  the  composition,  the  current  of  power  was 
shut  off,  and  everything  resumed  the  state  of  ordinary  com- 
position.    Her  condition  was  that  of  a  clerk  writing  uncon- 
cernedly and  mechanically  under  the  dictation  of  a  superior. 
It  resulted  from  this  that  the  writings,  executed  at  the  maxi- 
;mum  speed  of  the  subject,  and  generally  without  retardation 
or  stoppage   after  the   questions,   were   in  one  long  string, 
without  punctuation  or  paragraphs,  and  full  of  mistakes  in 
spelling,  resulting  from  the  fact  that  the  medium  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  sense  of  the  writing  only  when  she  had 
read  it  over,  at  least  in  the  case  of  rather  long  communica- 
tions. 

The  gist  or  substance  of  the  writings  seems  very  frequently 
to  be  drawn  from  our  ideas,  our  conversation,  our  reading, 
or  our  thoughts ;  but  there  are  certain  plainly  marked  excep- 
tions. 

While  Mme.  G.  was  writing,  I  applied  myself  to  other 
occupations, —  calculations,  music,  etc.,  or  I  walked  up  and 
down  in  the  room ;  but  I  only  examined  the  replies  when  she 
had  stopped  writing. 

!N'othing  indicated  that  the  physical  and  physiological  con- 
dition of  the  medium  during  these  writings  was  in  any  way 
'.  different  from  that  of  her  ordinary  condition.  Mme.  G. 
could  interrupt  her  writing  at  will  and  apply  herself  to  other 
occupations  or  make  responses  about  things  unconnected  with 
the  seance,  and  it  never  happened  that  she  found  herself 
short  of  an  answer. 

There  is  no  parallelism  between  these  writings  and  the 
mental  endo^vments  of  Mme.  G.,  either  in  promptness  of 
repartee,  in  breadth  of  view,  or  in  philosophic  depth. 


396  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EORCES 

In  1890  I  bought  Flammarion's  Uranie,  which  Mme.  G. 
did  not  read  until  1891.  I  found  in  it  doctrines  absolutely 
similar  to  those  which  I  had  deduced  from  my  experiments 
and  from  our  communications.  Any  one  who  should  com- 
pare these  mediumistic  writings  with  the  philosophical  works 
of  the  French  astronomer  would  be  led  to  believe  that  Mme. 
G.  had  previously  read  them. 

Psychic  phenomena  have  this  peculiarity,  that  identical 
assertions  are  made  in  far  distant  places  through  mediums 
w^ho  have  never  known  each  other, —  a  fact  which  would  tend 
to  demonstrate  that,  running  through  many  declarations 
which  apparently  contradict  each  other,  there  is  a  certain 
uniformity  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  intelligent  occult 
power. 

In  1890  I  also  read  the  work  of  Dr.  Antoine  Cros,  TJie 
Problem^  in  which  I  also  found  astonishing  agreements  be- 
tween the  ideas  of  this  author  and  those  of  our  Unknown 
Inspirer, —  among  others  this :  that  man  himself  creates  his 
Paradises  and  becomes  that  to  which  he  has  aspired. 

We  should  always  seek  the  simplest  explanation  of  th 
facts,  without  desiring  to  find  the  occult  in  them,  and  abov 
all  without  looking  for  spirits  everywhere,  but  also  withou 
wishing,  under  any  circumstances,  to  reject  the  interventio 
of  unknown  agents  and  deny  the  facts  when  they  cannot  be 
explained. 

It  is  rather  curious  to  remark  that  if  we  compare  the  dic- 
tations given  by  the  tables  and  the  other  so-called  mediumis- 
tic phenomena  with  observations  made  in  conditions  of 
natural  or  hypnotic  somnambulism,  we  find  the  same  phases 
of  incoherence,  hesitation,  error,  lucidity  and  supernormal 
excitation  of  the  faculties. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  supernormal  excitation  of  thei 
faculties  neither  explains  the  cases  of  prediction  nor  the 
citation  of  unknown  facts.  In  the  case  of  many  telepathicl 
or  other  phenomena  every  explanation  limps  that  excludes 
the  intervention  of  external  intelligences..  But  it  is  still 
impossible  to  formulate  a  theory.  There  exists  a  gap  to  be 
filled  by  new  discoveries.''^ 

*  Goupil,  Pour  et  Contre,  p.  113. 


1 


MY  GEXERAL  INQUIRY  397 

I  will  add  to  these  conclusions  two  short  extracts  from  a 
'letter  which  M.  Goupil  wrote  me  on  the  13th  of  April,  1899, 
and  from  another  one  on  the  1st  of  June,  in  the  same  year. 

1.  Replying  to  the  request  which  you  address  to  your 
readers,  I  will  say  that  I  have  never  observed  telepathic  cases, 
but  that  I  have  for  a  long  time  been  experimenting  with  the 
I  phenomena   called  Spiritualistic,   of  which  I  was  a  simple 

analyst.  I  have  come  to  no  conclusions  as  to  explanatory 
theories.  However,  I  consider  it  prohahle  that  there  exists 
powerful  intelligences  other  than  human  that  intervene  un- 
der certain  circumstances.  My  opinion  is  based  upon  a 
large  number  of  very  curious  personal  occurrences.  In  my 
opinion,  we  have  not  in  these  phenomena  the  appearance  of 
simple  coincidences,  but  of  circumstances  willed,  foreseen, 
and  produced  by  an  intelligent  x. 

2.  Of  the  ensemble  —  of  all  that  I  have  seen  —  there  is 
simultaneously  the  reflex  action  of  the  experimenters  and 
an  independent  personality.     This  hypothesis  seems  to  me 

,true,  while  I  should  make  at  the  same  time  this  reservation, 

,  that  the  personality  or  spirit  is  not  a  finished  being,  with 

limitations  of  form,  such  as  an  invisible  man  would  have, 

going,  coming  and  executing  commissions  for  human  beings. 

I  have  glimpses  of  a  grander  and  vaster  system. 

Take  a  handful  of  the  ocean,  and  you  have  water. 

Take  a  handful  of  the  atmosphere,  and  you  have  air. 

Take  a  handful  of  space,  and  you  have  mind. 

That  is  the  way  I  interpret  it.  That  is  why  mind  is  al- 
ways present,  ready  to  respond  when  it  finds  in  any  place 
a  stimulus  that  incites  it,  and  an  organism  which  permits  it 
to  manifest  itself. 

Let  us  confess  that  the  problem  is  complex  and  that  it  is 
good  to  compare  all  the  hypotheses.* 

*  It  has  been  my  desire  to  give  in  this  place  the  result  of  the  per- 
sonal experience  of  a  large  number  of  men  anxious  to  know  the  truth ; 
above  all  to  reply  to  ignorant  journalists  who  invite  their  readers  to 
indulge  in  supercilious  scorn  of  these  researches  and  experimenter^^. 
At  the  very  moment  when  I  was  correcting  the  proofs  of  these  last 
pages  I  received  a  journalj  Le  Lyon  ripuhlicain,  of  the  25th  of  January, 
1907,  which  has   for  its  leading  article  a   quite  preposterous   diatribe 


398  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

From  the  numerous  papers  and  documents  laid  out  at  this 
moment  upon  my  writing-desk,  I  can  only  select  a  small 
number  for  insertion  here,  although  they  all  have  their  spe- 
cial interest.  One  is  overwhelmed  by  the  richness  and  vast- 
ness  of  the  material.  However,  out  of  the  material  acquired 
in  the  course  of  the  Inquiry  of  w^hich  I  spoke  above,  let  me 
give  here  one  piece  which  I  should  regret  not  to  be  able  to 
include  within  the  compass  of  the  present  work. 

The  former  governess  of  the  poet  Alfred  de  Musset,  Mme. 
Martelet,  nee  Adele  Colin, —  who  still  lives  in  Paris  and 
who  has  just  been  present  (in  1906)  at  the  unveiling  of  the 
statue  of  the  poet  (although  his  death  dates  from  the  year 
1857), —  has  given  the  following  account,  which  may  be 
added  here  to  that  of  movements  without  contact. 

An  inexplicable  occurrence  which  my  sister,  Mme.  Char- 
lot,  and  myself  witnessed  impressed  us  most  deeply.  It  took 
place  at  the  time  of  the  last  sickness  of  M.  de  Musset.  I 
shall  never  forget  the  emotion  we  felt  that  evening,  and  I 
still  have  the  minutest  incidents  of  the  strange  occurrence 
stamped  on  my  memory. 

My  master,  who  had  taken  no  rest  during  all  the  previous 
night,  had  toward  the  end  of  the  day,  fallen  into  a  doze  in 
a  large  easy-chair.    My  sister  and  I  had  entered  the  chamber 

against   me    signed   "  Robert   Estienne."     The   performance    shows   that . 
tlie  author  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about  nor  the  man  of  whom 
he  is  treating. 

There  is  evidently  no  reason  in  the  nature  of  things  why  the  city  of 
Lyons  should  be  more  disposed  to  error  than  any  other  point  on  the* 
globe.  But  mark  the  coincidence:  I  received,  at  the  same  time,  a 
number  of  L'Universite  catholique,  of  Lyons,  in  which  a  certain  Abbfi 
Delfour  speaks  of  "  supernatural  contemporary  facts  "  without  under- 
standing a  word  of  the  subject. 

No,  the  trouble  is  not  with  the  city  of  Lyons  merely.  There  are 
blind  people  everywhere.  You  can  read  a  dissertation  ejusdem  farincBf 
signed  by  the  Jesuit  Lucien  Roure,  in  Les  fJtudes  religieuses,  published 
at  Paris,  with  critical  judgments  worthy  of  a  traveling  salesman. 

In  this  connection,  you  can  read  in  tlie  Nouveau  Catcchisme  du  dio- 
cese de  Nanei/:     "  Q.     What  must  we  think  of  the  demonstrated  facts 
of    Spiritualism,    somnambulism,    and    magnetism?  —  A.     We    must    at- i 
tribute  them  to  the  devil,  and  it  would  be  a  sin  to  take  part  in  them  in 
any  way  whatever." 


MY  GE]S"ERAL  INQUIRY  399 

on  tip-toe,  in  order  not  to  trouble  this  precious  rest  of  his, 
and  we  sat  quietly  do^vn  in  a  corner  where  we  were  concealed 
by  the  curtains  of  the  bed. 

The  invalid  could  not  perceive  us,  but  we  saw  him  very 
well,  and  I  sorrowfully  contemplated  that  suffering  face 
which  I  knew  I  could  not  much  longer  look  upon.  And  still, 
even  now,  when  I  recall  the  features  of  my  master,  I  see  them 
as  they  appeared  to  me  on  that  evening, —  the  eyes  closed,  his 
finely  shaped  head  resting  upon  the  easy-chair,  and  his  long, 
thin,  pale  hands  (the  paleness  of  the  dead  already  upon 
them),  crossed  upon  his  knees  in  a  contracted  and  shriveled 
way.  We  remained  motionless  and  silent,  and  the  chamber, 
lighted  only  by  a  feeble  lamp,  seemed  wrapped  in  shadows 
and  was  filled  with  that  peculiar  mournful  atmosphere  that 
characterizes  the  chamber  of  the  dying. 

Suddenly  we  heard  a  deep  sigh.     The  invalid  had  waked 
up  and  I  saAV  his  looks  go  toward  the  bell-cord  that  hung 
near  the  fireplace  some  steps  from  the  easy-chair.     He  evi- 
dently wanted  to  ring,  and  I  do  not  know  what  feeling  it 
was  that  held  me  nailed  to  my  place.     Still  I  did  not  move, 
and  my  master,  having  a  horror  of  solitude  and  believing 
that  he  was  alone  in  his  chamber,  rose  up,  stretched  out  his 
'  arm  with  the  evident  intention  of  calling  someone ;  but,  al- 
ready fatigued  by  this  effort,  he  fell  back  into  the  chair  with- 
out having  taken  a  step.     It  was  at  this  moment  that  we  had 
'  an  experience  that  terrified  us.      The  bell,  which  the  sick 
man  had  not  touched,  rang,  and  instinctively,  at  the  same 
moment,   my  sister   and   I   seized  each  other's  hands,   each 
'  anxiously  interrogating  the  face  of  the  other. 

"  Did  you  hear  ?  " — '^  Did  you  see  ?  " — ^'  He  did  not  move 
from  his  chair !  " 

At  this  moment  the  nurse  entered  and  innocently  asked, 
"  Did  you  ring,  sir  ? '' 

This  event  put  us  into  an  extraordinary  state  of  mind,  and 
if  I  had  not  had  my  sister  with  me  I  should  have  believed 
that  it  was  an  hallucination.  But  both  of  us  saw,  and 
all  three  of  us  heard.  It  is  a  good  many  years  now  since 
all  that  took  place,  but  I  can  still  hear  the  ominous  and 
mournful  sound  of  that  bell  ringing  in  the  silence  of  the 
chamber. 


400  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

This  account,  also,  seems  not  to  be  devoid  of  value.  There 
are  undoubtedly  several  ways  of  explaining  it.  The  first 
is  that  which  occurs  to  everybody. 

The  Frenchman,  born  malign,  says  Boileau,  does  not 
mince  matters,  and,  apropos  of  this  story  of  De  Musset,- 
simply  exclaims  in  his  language  (always  flashy  and  devoid: 
of  literary  distinction),  "What  a  fine  piece  of  rot!  "  Audi 
that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  A  few  may  reflect  for  a  moment 
more,  and  not  admit  that  there  is  necessarily  any  invention- 
on  the  part  of  the  governess,  and  may  think  that  she,  as; 
well  as  her  sister,  believed  that  De  Musset  had  not  touched' 
the  bell  cord,  w^hile  in  reality  he  touched  it  with  the  ends  of! 
his  fingers.  But  these  ladies  can  answer  that  the  distance! 
between  the  hand  of  the  poet  and  the  cord  was  too  great,; 
that  the  cord  was  inaccessible  in  that  position,  and  that  it\ 
was  that  very  thing  which  impressed  them,  and  without; 
which  there  would  have  been  no  story  to  tell.  We  may  also! 
suppose  that  the  bell  was  rung  by  some  external  force  im- 
pinging on  it,  although  the  cord  was  not  pulled.  We  may 
still  further  suppose  that,  in  the  restlessness  of  these  hours, 
of  distress,  the  waiting-woman  came  in  without  having  heardj 
ajiything,  and  that  the  coincidence  of  her  arrival  with  the; 
gesture  of  De  Musset  surprised  the  two  watchers,  who  after-, 
ward  thought  that  they  had  heard  the  bell.  However,  to] 
sum  up  the  whole  thing,  while  we  may  regard  the  occurrence^ 
as  inexplicable,  we  may  yet  admit  its  truth  as  narrated. 
This  seems  to  me  the  most  logical  view,  and  the  more  so  thatj 
the  gentle  poet  had,  several  times  in  his  life,  given  other- 
proofs  of  possessing  faculties  of  this  kind. 

I  will  add  here  one  more  instance  of  the  movement  of  oh-\ 
jects  without  contact  which  is  not  without  value.  It  was, 
published  by  Dr.  Coues  in  the  Annales  des  sciences  psy- 
chiques,  for  the  year  1893.    The  views  stated  are  also  worthy 


MY  GEISTERAL  mQUIRY  401 

i)f  being  summed  up  here.     The  observers,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  El- 
liott Coues,  s-pesik  out  of  their  own  j^ersonal  experience. 


( 


I  It  is  a  principle  of  physics  that  a  heavy  body  can  only  be 
put  in  motion  by  the  direct  application  of  a  mechanical  force 
fSufiicient  to  overcome  its  inertia,  and  orthodox  science  main- 
tains that  the  idea  of  action  at  a  distance  is  an  erroneous 
idea. 

!  The  authors  of  the  present  study  assert,  on  the  contrary, 
'that  heavy  bodies  may  be,  and  frequently  are,  put  in  motion 
^without  any  kind  of  direct  application  of  mechanical  force, 
land  that  action  at  a  distance  is  a  well-established  fact  in 
nature.  We  offer  proofs  of  these  propositions  based  on  a 
series  of  experiments  undertaken  for  this  purpose. 
I  We  often  repeated  these  experiments,  during  more  than 
wo  years,  Avith  results  that  were  convincing  not  only  to  our- 
elves  but  to  many  other  witnesses. 

We  do  not  understand  how  the  scientific  world  has  been 

able  to  accept  the  idea  that  the  expression  ''  action  at  a  dis- 

I  tance ''  is  a  false  one,  unless  those  who  see  an  error  in  the 

assertion  attach  to  these  words  a  special  meaning  of  which 

we  are  ignorant. 

[  It  is  certain  that  the  sun  acts  at  a  distance  upon  the  earth 
land  the  other  planets  of  the  solar  system.  It  is  certain  that 
a  piece  of  anything  thrown  into  the  air  falls  back  in  conse- 
quence of  the  attraction  of  gravitation, —  and  that,  too,  at  no 
matter  what  distance.  The  law  of  gravitation,  so  far  as  w^e 
know  it,  is  universal,  and  it  is  not  yet  proved  that  there  ex- 
ists a  ponderable,  or  otherwise  palpable,  medium  which  serves 
Ito  transmit  the  force.* 

We  go  a  little  farther,  even,  and  declare  that,  probably, 
all  action  of  matter  is  an  action  at  a  distance,  especially 
since  (so  far  as  our  knowledge  goes)  there  are  not  in  the 
whole  universe  two  particles  of  matter  in  absolute  contact; 
and,  consequently,  if  they  act  the  one  upon  the  other,  it  must 

*  Newton,  as  is  well  known,  declares,  in  his  letter  to  Bentley,  that 
he  can  only  explain  gravitation  by  supposing  the  existence  of  a  medium 
which  transmits  it.  Yet,  to  our* senses,  the  ether  would  not  be  a  ma- 
terial thing.  But,  however  that  may  be,  celestial  bodies  do  certainly 
act  at  a  distance  one  upon  another. 


402  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

be  at  some  distance,  this  distance  being  infinitely  small  anc 
entirely  inappreciable  to  our  senses. 

We  therefore  maintain  that  the  law  of  movement  at  a  dis- 
tance is  a  universal  mechanical  law  and  that  the  idea  that  il 
does  not  exist  is  a  kind  of  a  paradox,  simply  a  hair-splitting 
quibble. 

The  two  authors  of  this  study  sometimes  experimented 
together,  sometimes  separately,  more  often  with  one  or  more 
additional  experimenters,  sometimes  with  four,  five,  six, 
seven  or  eight.  They  witnessed  at  different  times,  in  full 
light,  the  vigorous  and  even  violent  movements  of  a  large 
table  which  nobody  touched  directly  or  indirectly.  The  per- 
sons mentioned  were  all  friends  of  theirs,  living,  like  them, 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  and  all  sincerely  desirous  of 
knowing  the  truth  of  the  matter.  There  was  no  professional 
medium. 

The  scene  opens  in  a  little  parlor  in  our  house  (they 
write).  In  the  centre  of  the  room  is  a  large  heavy  oak  table 
in  marquetry,  which  weighs  about  one  hundred  pounds. 
The  top  is  oval  and  measures  four  feet  and  a  half  by  three 
and  a  half.  It  has  only  a  single  support,  in  the  middle, 
branching  off  into  three  legs,  or  feet,  with  casters.  Above  it 
is  the  chandelier,  several  burners  of  which  are  lighted  and 
give  sufficient  light  for  the  ladies  to  read  and  work  by  the 
table.  Dr.  Coues  is  seated  in  his  easy-chair,  in  a  corner  of 
this  large  room,  at  a  distance  from  the  table,  reading  or  writ- 
ing by  the  light  of  two  other  burners. 

The  ladies  express  the  wish  to  see  if  the  table  ^'  will  do 
something,''  as  they  say. 

The  cloth  is  removed.  Mrs.  C,  seated  in  a  low  rocking- 
chair,  places  her  hands  on  the  table.  Mrs.  A.,  also  seated 
in  a  low  easy-chair,  docs  the  same,  facing  her  at  the  opposite 
side  of  the  table.  Their  hands  are  opened  and  placed  upon 
the  upper  surface  of  the  table.  In  this  position,  they  can- 
not lift  the  table  by  themselves  with  their  hands :  that  is  an 
entire  impossibility.     Neither  can  they  push  it  by  leaning 


MY  GENERAL  I:NQUIRY  403 

,m  it  in  order  to  make  it  rise  on  the  opposite  side,  except  by 
nuscular  effort  easily  observed.  Neither  can  they  lift  the 
;;able  unaided  with  their  knees,  since  these  are  at  least  a  foot 
iway  from  the  top  and  since  moreover  their  feet  never  leave 
::he  floor.  Finally,  they  cannot  lift  the  table  by  means  of 
heir  toes  slipped  under  a  foot  of  the  table,  because  the  table 
s  too  heavy. 

,  Under  these  conditions,  and  beneath  the  full  light  of  at 
■^east  four  gas  jets,  the  table  habitually  began  to  crack  or  snap, 
md  produced  divers  strange  noises  quite  different  from  those 
vhich  could  be  obtained  by  leaning  upon  it.  These  noises 
,oon  showed,  if  I  may  so  say,  some  reason  in  their  incoher- 
ence, and  certain  definite  strokes  or  rappings  came  to  rep- 
■esent  ''  yes,"  and  "  no."  According  to  an  arranged  code  of 
lignals,  we  were  able  to  enter  into  a  conversation  with  an 
inknown  being.  Then  the  table  was  generally  polite  enough 
,0  do  what  it  was  asked.  One  side  or  another  of  it  tipped  as 
ve  wished.  It  went  from  one  side  or  the  other  according 
.s  we  requested.  Under  these  circumstances  we  made  the 
bllowing  experiments : 

!  The  two  ladies  removed  their  hands  from  the  table  and 
Irew  back  their  chairs,  while  still  remaining  seated  in  them 
i,t  a  distance  of  one  or  two  feet.  Dr.  Coues  from  his  arm 
'ihair  saw  distinctly  above  and  beneath  the  table.  The  feet 
f  the  ladies  were  from  twelve  to  thirty-six  inches  distant 
rom  the  feet  of  the  table.  Their  heads  and  their  hands  were 
till  farther  off.  There  was  no  contact  with  it.  Even  their 
flresses  were  not  within  a  foot  or  two  of  it.  Under  these 
onditions,  the  table  lifted  one  of  its  feet  and  let  it  fall  heav- 
ly  back.  It  lifted  two  feet  to  a  height  of  from  two  to  six 
Qches,  and,  when  they  fell  back,  the  blow  was  heavy  enough 
0  make  the  floor  shake,  and  make  the  glass  globes  of  the 
iihandelier  tinkle.  Besides  these  energetic,  even  violent 
lovements,  the  table  displayed  its  power  by  means  of  raps 
r  balancings. 

Its  yes's  or  its  no's  were  commonly  rational,  sometimes  in 
greement  with  the  ideas  of  the  one  who  put  the  question, 
ometimes  in  persistent  opposition  to  those  ideas.  Some- 
imes  the  invisible  agent  affirmed  that  he  was  a  certain  per- 
on,   and   maintained   that    individuality    during   an   entire 


404  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

seance.  Or  possibly  this  character  was  dropped,  so  to  speak 
or  at  least  ceased  to  appear,  and  another  person,  or  anothe 
being,  took  its  place,  with  different  ideas  and  opinions 
Thereupon,  the  raps  or  the  movements  also  differed.  Einalh 
the  inanimate  table,  which  was  supposed  to  be  inert,  tool 
on  for  the  moment  all  the  appearance  of  a  living  being  pos 
sessing  an  intelligence  as  keen  as  that  of  an  ordinary  person 
It  expressed  itself  with  as  much  will  and  individuality  ai 
our  friends  caused  it  to  do  by  their  voices  and  their  gestures 
And  yet,  during  this  whole  time  no  one  of  the  three  person, 
present  touched  the  table,  the  two  ladies  being  at  a  distant 
of  two  or  three  feet,  and  Dr.  Coues  seven  to  ten  feet,  in  : 
corner  of  the  room,  which  was  lighted  by  four  gas  jets 
There  was  no  other  person  present  that  one  could  see.  I: 
this  was  not  a  case  of  telekinesis,  or  movement  of  objects 
without  contact,  absolutely  different  from  ordinary  and  nor 
mal  mechanical  movement,  we  can  certainly  no  longer  pu' 
trust  in  our  senses. 

These  observations  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Elliott  Coues  an 
all  as  positively  accurate  and  authentic  as  the  occurrence  oJ 
an  earthquake,  the  falling  of  a  fire-ball  from  the  sky,  a  chem 
ical  combination,  an  experiment  with  an  electrical  machine 
The  sceptics  who  smile  at  them  and  say  that  everything  h 
fraud  are  persons  in  whom  the  sense  of  logic  is  wanting. 

As  to  the  explanation  to  be  given  of  them,  that  is  a  differ 
ent  question  from  that  of  the  pure  and  simple  authenticatioi 
of  the  facts. 

Those  to  whom  these  descriptions  of  phenomena  and  ex 
periments  appeal  (adds  the  narrator)  must  take  particulai 
notice  that  the  authors  of  this  study,  although  they  have  hac 
occasion  to  speak  of  conversations  held  with  the  table  anc 
to  mention  special  tones  of  voice,  and  intelligible  message? 
imparted  by  pieces  of  inert  wood,  categorically  refuse  to  ap 
proach  the  question  of  the  source  or  origin  of  the  intelligence 
thus  manifested.  That  is  an  entirely  different  question, 
with  which  we  do  not  meddle.     The  single,  or  at  least  th€ 


MY  GENERAL  IXQUIRY  405 

principal,  object  of  the  publication  of  this  study  is  to  estab- 
lish the  truth  of  movement  without  contact. 

But,  having  very  plainly  verified  the  fact  and  established 
'  it  by  proofs  in  our  possession,  it  might  perhaps  be  expected 
I  of  us  that  we  offer  some  explanation  of  the  extraordinary 
■  things  that  we  vouch  for.     We  respectfully  reply  that  we  are 
.  both  too  old  and  perhaps  too  wise  to  claim  to  explain  any- 
j  thing.     When  we  were  younger,  and  fancied  that  we  knew 
!  everything,  we  could  explain  everything, —  at  least  to  our 
own  satisfaction.     Xow  that  we  have  lived  long  enough,  we 
have  discovered  that  every  explanation  of  a  thing  raises  at 
least  two  new  questions,  and  we  do  not  feel  any  desire  to 
stumble    against    new    difficulties ;    for    these    multiply    in 
geometrical  ratio,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  and  accuracy  of 
our  researches.     We  hold  to  this  principle,  that  nothing  is 
■explained  so  long  as  there  still  remains  an  explanation  to 
be  sought.     Under  these  conditions,  we  shall  do  better  to 
recognize  the  inexplicability  of  these  psychical  mysteries,  be- 
fore, rather  than  after,  futile  theories  about  them. 

There  you  have  what  is  absolutely  reasonable,  whatever 
may  be  said  of  it. 

And  now,  after  these  innumerable  verifications  of  facts, 
and  after  all  these  professions  of  faith,  shall  I  myself,  have 
the  courage,  the  pretension,  the  pride  or  the  simplicity  of 
mind,  to  start  in  search  of  the  much  desired  information  ? 

Whether  we  find  it  or  not,  the  facts  nevertheless  exist.  It 
was  the  object  of  this  book  to  convince  my  readers  of  this, — 
readers  who  should  give  to  the  subject  their  close  attention, 
be  possessed  of  unbiased  judgment  and  good  faith,  and 
have  the  eyes  of  the  spirit  wide  open  and  free  from  all  weak- 
'  ness. 


CHAPTER,  XII 

EXPLANATORY    HYPOTHESES THEORIES    AND    DOCTRINES 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  THE  AUTHOR 

It  is  quite  in  the  fashion,  as  a  general  thing,  to  profess 
absolute  scepticism  regarding  the  phenomena  which  form  the 
subject  of  the  present  work.  In  the  opinion  of  three-quar- 
ters of  the  citizens  of  our  planet  all  unexplained  noises  in 
haunted  houses;  all  displacements  without  contact  of  bodies 
more  or  less  heavy ;  all  movements  of  tables,  pianos,  or  other 
objects  produced  in  the  experiments  styled  Spiritualistic; 
all  communications  dictated  by  raps  or  by  unconscious 
writing;  all  apparitions,  partial  or  total,  of  phantom 
forms  —  are  illusions,  hallucinations,  or  hoaxes.  ]N^o  ex- 
planation is  needed.  The  only  rational  opinion  is  that  all 
"  mediums/'  professional  or  not,  are  imposters,  and  the  par- 
ticipators in  a  seance  are  imbeciles. 

Sometimes  one  of  these  eminent  judges  consents,  not  to 
cease  tipping  the  wink  and  smiling  in  his  royal  competency, 
but  to  condescend  to  be  present  at  a  seance.  If,  as  only  too 
frequently  happens,  no  response  to  the  command  of  the  will 
is  obtained,  the  illustrious  observer  retires,  firmly  convinced 
that,  by  his  extraordinary  penetration,  he  has  discovered  the 
cheat  and  blocked  everything  by  his  clairvoyant  intuition. 
He  at  once  ^^Tites  to  the  journals,  shows  up  the  fraud,  anc 
sheds  humanitarian  crocodile  tears  over  the  sad  spectacle  oj 
men,  apparently  intelligent,  allowing  themselves  to  be  taker 
in  by  impostures,  detected  by  him  at  the  first  blush. 

This  first  and  easy  explanation,  that  everything  in  th< 

406 


I  EXPLA:N"AT0EY  hypotheses  407 

manifestations  is  fraud,  has  been  so  often  exposed,  discussed, 
and  refuted  during  the  course  of  this  work  that  my  readers 
probably  consider  it  (at  least  I  hope  they  do)  as  entirely, 
absolutely,  and  definitely  decided  and  thrown  out  of  the  ring. 

However,  I  advise  you  not  to  speak  too  freely  of  these 
things  at  table,  or  in  a  drawing  room  if  you  do  not  like  to 
have  people  making  fun  of  you,  more  or  less  discreetly.  If 
you  air  your  views  in  public,  you  will  produce  the  same 
effect  as  those  eccentric  fellows  of  the  time  of  Ptolemy,  who 
dared  to  speak  of  the  movement  of  the  earth  and  excited 
such  inextinguishable  laughter  in  respectable  society  that 
the  echoes  ring  with  it  still  in  Athens,  Alexandria,  and 
Eome.  It  is  only  a  repetition  of  what  took  place  when 
Galileo  spoke  of  the  spots  on  the  sun,  Galvani  of  electricity, 
Jenner  of  vaccine,  Jouffroy  and  Fulton  of  the  steamship, 
Chappe  of  the  telegraph,  Lebon  of  gas-lighting,  Stephen- 
son of  railways,  Daguerre  of  photography,  Boucher  de 
Perthes  of  the  fossil  man,  Mayer  of  thermodynamics.  Wheat- 
stone  of  the  transatlantic  cable,  etc.  If  we  could  gather  up 
all  the  sarcasms  launched  at  the  heads  of  these  ^'  poor  crazy- 
wits,"  we  should  get  a  fine  basket  of  venerable  blunders, 
moldy  as  a  remainder  biscuit  after  a  voyage. 

So  let  us  not  speak  too  much  of  our  mysteries  —  unless 
it  amuses  us,  in  our  turn,  to  ask  some  questions  of  the  pret- 
tiest dolls  in  the  company.  One  of  them  inquired  in  my 
presence,  yesterday  evening,  what  the  man  named  Lavoisier 
did,  and  whether  he  was  dead.  Another  thought  that 
Auguste  Comte  was  a  writer  of  songs  and  asked  if  any  one 
knew  one  of  them  which  would  suit  a  mezzo-soprano  voice. 
Another  was  astonished  that  Louis  XIV  had  not  built  one  of 
the  two  railway  stations  of  Versailles  nearer  the  palace. 

Moreover,  on  my  balcony,  a  member  of  the  Institute,  who 
saw  Jupiter  shining  in  the  southern  sky  at  the  meridian 
point,  over  one  of  the  cupolas  of  the  Observatory,  obstinately 


408  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

maintained  in  my  presence  that  this  luminary  was  the  polar 
star.     I  did  not  dispute  the  point  with  him  too  long! 

There  are  not  a  few  people  who  believe  at  once  in  the 
value  of  universal  suffrage  and  in  that  of  titles  of  nobility. 
Of  course,  we  will  not  force  these  Janus-faced  wise  men  to 
vote  upon  the  admissibility  of  psychic  phenomena  into  the 
sphere  of  science. 

But  we  will  henceforth  consider  this  admissibility  as 
something  granted,  and,  tossing  back  to  the  laughing  sceptics, 
to  the  habitues  of  clubs  and  cliques,  the  general  opinion  of 
the  world,  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  begin  here  our  logical 
analysis. 

We  have  had  under  consideration  during  the  course  of  this 
work  several  theories  by  scientific  investigators  which  are 
worthy  of  attention.     Let  us  first  of  all  sum  these  up. 

In  the  opinion  of  Gasparin,  these  unexplained  movements 
are  produced  by  a  fluids  emanating  from  us  under  the  action 
of  our  will. 

Professor  Thury  thinks  that  this  fluid,  which  he  calls 
psychode,  is  a  substance  which  forms  a  link  between  the  soul 
and  the  body ;  but  there  may  also  exist  certain  wills  external 
to  ourselves,  and  of  unknown  nature,  working  side  by  side 
with  us. 

The  chemist  Crookes  attributes  the  phenomena  to  psychic 
force,  this  being  the  agent  by  which  the  phenomena  are  pro- 
duced; but  he  adds  that  this  force  may  well  be,  in  certain 
cases,  seized  upon  and  directed  by  some  other  intelligence 
"  The  difference  between  the  partisans  of  psychic  force  anc 
those  of  Spiritualism,'^  he  writes,  "  consists  in  this :  we 
maintain  that  it  is  not  yet  proved  that  there  exists  a  direct- 
ing agent  other  than  the  intelligence  of  the  medium  andj 
that  presence  and  actions  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  fell 
in  the  phenomena,  while,  on  the  contrary,  the  Spiritualist 
accept  as  an  article  of  faith,  without  demanding  more  proofs 
thereof,  that  these  spirits  are  the  sole  agents  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  observed  facts.'' 


EXPLA:NTAT0R.Y  hypotheses  409 

Albert  de  Rochas  defines  these  phenomena  as  ''  an  exter- 
nalization  of  motivity/'  and  considers  them  to  be  produced 
bj  the  fluidic  double,  "  the  astral  body ''  of  the  medium,  a 
nerve-fluid  able  to  act  and  perceive  at  a  distance. 

Lombroso  declares  that  the  explanation  must  be  sought 
simply  in  the  nervous  system  of  the  medium,  and  that  we 
have  in  the  phenomena  tra7isformatio7i  of  forces. 

Dr.  Ochorowicz  affirms  that  he  has  not  found  proofs  in 
favor  of  the  Spiritualistic  hypothesis,  any  more  than  he  has 
in  favor  of  the  intervention  of  external  intelligences,  and  that 
the  cause  of  the  phenomena  is  a  fluidic  double  detaching  it- 
self from  the  organism  of  the  medium. 

The  astronomer  Porro  is  inclined  to  admit  the  possible 
action  of  unknown  spirits,  of  living  forms  different  from  our 
own,  not  necessarily  the  souls  of  the  dead,  but  psychical  enti- 
ties to  be  studied.  In  a  recent  letter  he  wrote  me  that  the 
theosophic  doctrine  appeared  to  him  to  approach  the  nearest 
to  a  solution.^ 

Prof.  Charles  Richet  thinks  that  the  Spiritualistic  hypoth- 
esis is  far  from  being  demonstrated,  that  the  observed  facts 
relate  to  an  entirely  different  order  of  causes,  as  yet  very 
difficult  to  disentangle  and  that  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  no  final  conclusion  can  be  agreed  on. 

The  naturalist  Wallace,  Professor  Morgan,  and  the  elec- 
trician Varley  declare,  on  the  other  hand,  that  sufficient  proof 
has  been  given  them  to  warrant  them  in  accepting  without 
reserve  the  Spiritualistic  doctrine  of  disembodied  souls. 

Prof.  James  H.  Hyslop,  of  the  University  of  Columbia, 
who  has  made  a  special  study  of  these  phenomena,  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  London  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  and 
in  his  works  Science  and  a  Future  Life  and  Enigmas  of 
Psychical  Research^  thinks  that  there  are  not  yet  enough 
severely  critical  verifications  to  warrant  any  theory. 

*The  initiated  know  that  according  to  this  doctrine  the  terrestrial 
human  being  is  composed  of  five  entities:  the  physical  body;  the  ethe- 
real double,  a  little  less  gross,  surviving  the  first  for  some  time;  the 
astral  body,  still  more  subtile;  the  mental  body,  or  intelligence,  sur- 
yiving  the  three  preceding;  and  finally  the  Ego,  or  indestructible  soul. 


410  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Dr.  Grasset,  a  disciple  of  Pierre  Janet,  does  not  admit 
displacement  of  objects,  or  levitation,  or  the  greater  part  of 
the  facts  described  in  this  book  as  proved,  and  thinks  what 
is  called  Spiritualism  is  a  question  of  medical  biology,  of 
^^  the  physiopathology  of  the  nervous  centres,"  in  which  a  cel- 
ebrated cerebral  polygon  with  a  musical  conductor  named  O, 
plays  an  automatic  role  of  a  very  curious  description. 

Dr.  Maxwell  concludes  from  his  observations  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  phenomena,  the  reality  of  which  cannot 
be  doubted,  are  produced  by  a  force  existing  in  us,  that  this 
force  is  intelligent,  and  that  the  intelligence  manifested 
comes  from  the  experimenters.  This  would  be  a  kind  of  col- 
lective consciousness. 

M.  Marcel  Mangin  does  not  adopt  this  "  collective  con- 
sciousness,'' and  declares  that  it  is  certain  that  the  being,  in 
the  seances,  who  asserts  that  he  is  a  manifestation  is  '^  the 
sub-consciousness  of  the  medium." 

The  foregoing  are  some  of  the  principal  opinions.  It 
would  take  a  whole  book  to  discuss  in  writing  the  proposed 
explanations,  but  that  is  not  my  object.  My  aim  was  to  focus 
the  question  on  what  concerns  the  admissibility  of  the 

PHENOMENA  INTO   THE  SPHEKE   OF  POSITIVE   SCIENCE. 

However,  now  that  this  is  done,  we  cannot  but  ask  our- 
selves, what  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  all  these  ob- 
servations. 

If  we  wish  to  obtain,  after  this  mass  of  verifications,  a 
satisfactory  rational  explanation,  it  seems  to  me  we  must 
proceed  gradually,  classify  the  facts,  analyze  them,  and  only 
admit  them  in  proportion  to  their  absolute  and  demonstrated 
certainty.  We  live  in  a  very  complex  universe,  and  the  most 
singular  confusion  has  arisen  among  phenomena  which  are 
very  distinct  one  from  another. 

As  I  said  in  18G9,  at  the  tomb  of  Allan  Kardec,  "  The 
causes  in  action  are  of  several  kinds,  and  are  more  numer- 
ous than  one  would  suppose." 


EXPLA:N"AT0IIY  hypotheses  411 

Can  we  explain  the  observed  phenomena,  or  at  least  any 
portion  of  it?  It  is  our  duty  to  try.  For  this  purpose  I 
shall  classify  them  in  the  order  of  increasing  difficulties.  It 
is  always  advisable  to  begin  with  the  beginning. 

May  I  hope  that  the  reader  will  have  got  a  clear  idea  in 
his  mind  of  the  experiments  and  observations  set  forth  in 
the  previous  pages  of  this  work  ?  It  would  be  a  little  insipid 
to  refer  every  time  to  the  pages  where  the  phenomena  have 
been  described. 

1.  Rotation"  of  the  taele,  with  contact  of  the  hands  of  a 

certain  numher  of  operators. 

This  rotation  can  be  explained  by  an  unconscious  impulse 
given  to  the  table.  All  that  is  necessary  is  that  each  one 
push  a  little  in  the  same  way,  and  the  movement  will  take 
place. 

2.  Movement  of  the  table,  the  hands  of  the  experiment- 

ers resting  upon  it. 

The  operators  push  and  the  table  is  led  along  without  their 
knowing  it,  each  one  acting  in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  They 
think  they  are  following  it,  but  they  are  really  leading  it 
along.  We  have  in  this  only  the  result  of  muscular  efforts, 
generally  of  a  rather  slight  nature. 

3.  Lifting  of  the  table  on  the  side  opposite  to  that  upon 

which  the  hands  of  the  principal  actor  are  placed. 

J^othing  is  more  simple.  The  pressure  of  the  hands  upon 
a  centre-table  with  three  legs  suffices  to  produce  the  lifting 
of  the  leg  the  farthest  removed,  and  thus  to  strike  all  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet.  The  movement  is  less  easy  in  the 
case  of  a  table  with  four  legs;  but  it  can  also  be  obtained. 

These  three  movements  are  the  only  ones,  it  seems  to  me, 
which  can  be  explained  without  the  least  mystery.  Still,  the 
third  is  only  explicable  in  case  the  table  is  not  too  heavy. 

4.     Imparting  life  to  the  table. 

Several  experimenters  being  seated  around  the  table,  and 
forming  the  chain  with  the  desire  of  seeing  it  rise,  the  waves 


412  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

of  a  kind  of  vibrations  (light  at  first)  are  perceived  to  be 
passing  through  the  wood.  Then  balancings  are  noticed, 
some  of  which  may  be  due  to  muscular  impulses.  But  al- 
ready something  more  is  now  mingled  in  the  process.  The 
table  seems  to  be  set  in  motion  of  itself.  Sometimes  it  rises, 
no  longer  as  if  moved  by  a  lever,  or  by  pressure  on  one  side, 
but  under  the  hands,  as  if  it  were  sticking  to  them.  This 
levitation  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  gravitation.  Hence  we 
have  here  a  discharge  of  force.  This  force  emanates  from 
our  organism.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  seek  for  any- 
thing else.  Nevertheless,  what  we  have  detected  is  a  thing 
of  prime  importance. 

5.     Rotation  without  contact. 

The  table  being  in  rapid  rotation,  we  can  remove  our  hands 
from  it,  and  see  it  continue  the  movement.  The  velocity  or 
momentum  acquired  may  explain  the  momentary  contin- 
uation of  this  movement  and  the  explanation  given  in  the 
case  of  Xo.  1  may  suffice.  But  there  is  more  in  it  than  this. 
Rotation  is  obtained  by  holding  the  hands  at  a  distance  of 
some  inches  above  the  table,  without  any  contact.  A  light 
layer  of  flour  dusted  over  the  table  is  found  to  be  untouched 
by  a  single  finger.  Hence  the  force  emitted  by  the  operators 
must  penetrate  the  table. 

The  experiments  prove  that  we  have  in  us  a  force  capable 
of  acting  at  a  distance  upon  matter,  a  natural  force,  gener- 
ally latent,  but  developed  in  different  degrees  in  different 
mediums.  The  action  of  the  force  is  manifested  under  con- 
ditions as  yet  imperfectly  determined.  (See  pp.  81,  248  et 
seq.)  We  can  act  upon  brute  matter,  upon  living  matter, 
upon  the  brain  and  upon  the  mind.  This  action  of  the  will 
is  shown  in  telepathy.  It  is  shown  more  simply  still  by 
means  of  a  well-known  experiment :  at  the  theatre,  in  church, 
when  hearino-  music,  a  man  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  will- 
power,  and  sitting  several  rows  of  seats  behind  a  woman, 
say,  compels  her  to  turn  around  in  less  than  a  minute.  A 
force  emanates  from  us,  from  our  spirit,  acting  undoubtedly 
by  means  of  ethenvaves,  the  point  of  departure  of  which 
is  a  cerebral  movement. 

And  there  is  nothing  very  mysterious  in  this.     I  bring 


EXPLAE^ATOEY  HYPOTHESES  413 

mj  hand  near  a  thermometer^  and  ascertain  that  something 
invisible  is  escaping  from  my  hand,  and,  at  a  certain  re- 
move, making  the  cohimn  of  mercury  rise.  This  something 
else  is  heat ;  that  is  to  say,  aerial  waves  in  movement.  Then 
why  might  not  other  radiations  emanate  from  our  hands  and 
from  our  whole  being  ? 

But,  nevertheless,  there  is  a  very  important  scientific  fact 
to  be  established. 

This  physical  force  is  greater  than  that  of  the  muscles,  as 
I  am  going  to  prove. 

6.     Lifting-  of  weights. 

A  table  is  loaded  with  sacks  of  sand  and  with  stones  weigh- 
ing altogether  from  165  to  176  pounds.  The  table  lifts  each 
of  its  three  legs  several  times  in  succession.  But  it  suc- 
cumbs under  the  load  and  is  broken.  The  operators  ascer- 
tain that  their  muscular  force  would  not  have  sufficed  to 
produce  the  observed  movements.  The  will  acts  by  a  dy- 
namic prolongation. 

7.     Liftings  without  contact. 

The  hands  forming  the  chain  some  inches  above  the  side 
of  the  table  which  is  to  be  lifted,  and  all  wills  being  concen- 
trated on  the  one  idea,  the  lifting  of  each  of  the  legs  in  suc- 
cession takes  place.  The  liftings  are  more  readily  obtained 
than  rotations  without  contact.  An  energetic  will  seems  to 
be  indispensable.  The  unknown  force  passes  from  the  ex- 
perimenters to  the  table  without  any  contact.  If  the  table 
is  dusted  over  with  flour,  as  I  said,  not  the  slightest  finger- 
touch  is  seen  to  be  imprinted  on  it. 

The  will  of  the  sitters  is  in  play.  The  table  is  ordered 
to  make  such  and  such  a  movement  and  it  obeys.  This  will 
seems  to  be  prolonged  beyond  the  bodies  of  the  operating 
experimenters  in  the  shape  of  a  force  that  is  quite  intense. 

This  power  is  developed  by  action.  The  balancings  pre- 
pare for  the  rising  and  the  latter  for  complete  levitation. 

8.     Eeducing  the  weight  of  the  table  or  other  ob- 
jects. 
A  quadrangular  table  is  suspended  by  one  of  its  sides  to  a 
dynamometer  attached  to  a  cord  which  is  held  above  by  some 


414:    MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

kind  of  a  hook.  The  needle  of  the  dynamometer,  which, 
in  a  state  of  rest,  indicates  35  kilograms,  gradually  descends 
to  3,  2,  1,  0  kilograms. 

A  mahogany  board  is  placed  horizontally,  and  hung  by  one 
end  to  a  spring  balance.  This  balance  (or  scales),  has  a 
point  which  touches  a  pane  of  glass  blackened  by  smoke. 
When  this  pane  of  glass  is  put  in  movement,  the  needle 
traces  a  horizontal  line.  During  the  experiments,  this  line 
is  no  longer  straight,  but  marks  reductions  and  increments  of 
weight,  produced  w^ithout  any  contact  of  hands.  In  the  ex- 
periments of  Crookes  we  saw  that  the  weight  of  a  board  in- 
creased almost  114  pounds. 

The  medium  places  his  hands  upon  the  back  of  a  chair  and 
lifts  the  chair. 

9.  Augmentation"  of  the  weight  of  a  table  or  otheb 

OBJECTS. PKESSUEES  EXERTED. 

The  d\TLamometric  experiments  that  we  have  just  recalled 
themselves  go  to  show  this  augmentation. 

I  have  more  than  once  seen,  in  other  circumstances,  a 
table  become  so  heavy  that  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for 
two  men  to  lift  it  from  the  floor.  When  they  succeeded  in 
doing  so,  in  a  measure,  by  means  of  quick  jerks,  it  still 
seemed  to  stick  to  the  floor  as  if  held  by  glue  or  india  rubber, 
which  immediately  pulled  it  back  to  the  floor  after  it  had 
been  slightly  displaced. 

In  all  these  experiments,  there  is  proof  of  the  action  of  an 
unknown  natural  force  emanating  from  the  chief  exper- 
imenter or  from  the  collective  powers  of  the  group,  an  organic 
force  under  the  influence  of  the  will.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  the  presence  of  superhuman  spirits. 

10.  The   complete  lifting  up,  or  levitation  of  the 

TABLE, 

As  there  may  be  confusion  in  applying  the  word  "  lifting  '* 
to  a  table  which  only  rises  on  one  side  at  a  certain  angle, 
while  still  touching  the  floor,  it  is  expedient  to  apply  the 
word  "  levitation  "  to  the  case  in  which  it  is  completely  sep- 
arated from  the  floor. 

Generally,  in  levitation,  it  rises  from  six  to  eight  inches 


EXPLANATORY  HYPOTHESES     415 

'from  the  floor,  for  some  seconds  only,  and  then  falls  back. 
It  moves  up  in  a  balancing,  undulating,  hesitating  way,  with 
effort,  and  then  falls  straight  down.  While  resting  our 
hands  upon  it,  we  have  the  sensation  of  a  fluid  resistance,  as 

■  of  it  were  in  water, —  the  kind  of  fluid  sensation  we  ex- 
perience when  we  bring  a  piece  of  iron  into  the  field  of  force 

'  of  a  magnet. 

A  table,  a  chair  or  other  movable  article  sometimes  rises, 
not  merely  a  foot  or  so,  but  almost  to  the  height  of  one's 

[.head,  and  even  as  high  as  the  ceiling. 

The  force  brought  into  play  is  considerable. 

11.     Levitation  of  human  bodies. 

This  case  is  of  the  same  order  as  the  preceding.     The  me- 
dium may  be  raised  with  his  chair  and  placed  upon  the  table, 
sometimes  in  unstable  equilibrium.     He  may  also  be  lifted 
I  alone  (without  the  chair).* 

In  this  case  the  Unknown  Eorce  does  not  seem  to  be  simply 

mechanical:  intention  is  mingled  with  the  act,  and  ideas  of 

,  precaution,  which,  however  may  proceed  from  the  mentality 

of  the  medium  himself,  aided  perhaps  by  that  of  the  sitters. 

This  fact  seems  to  us  to  contravene  known  scientific  laws. 

*  These  observations  may  be  compared  with  a  little  social  diversion 
which  is  rather  popular,  and  is  particularly  described  in  one  of  the 
first  works  of  Sir  David  Brewster  (Letters  to  Walter  Scott  upon  Na- 
tural Magic)   in  the  following  terms: 

"  The  heaviest  person  of  the  company  lies  down  on  two  chairs,  the 
shoulders  resting  on  one  and  the  legs  on  the  other.     Four  persons,  one 

j  at  each  shoulder  and  one  at  each  foot,  try  to  lift  him,  and  at  first  find 
the  thing  difficult  to  do.  Then  the  subject  of  the  experiments  gives  two 
signals  by  clapping  his  hands  twice.  At  the  first  signal,  he  and  the 
four  others  inhale  deeply.  When  the  five  persons  are  full  of  air  he 
gives  the  second  signal,  which  is  for  the  lifting.  This  takes  place  with- 
out the  least  difficulty,  as  if  the  person  lifted  were  as  light  as  a 
feather." 

I  have  frequently  performed  the  same  experiment  upon  a  man  in  a 
sitting  posture  by  placing  two  fingers  under  his  legs  and  two  under 
his  arm-pits,  the  operators  inhaling  all  together  uniformly. 

This  is  undoubtedly  a  case  of  biological  action.  But  what  is  the  es- 
sential nature  of  gravitation?  Faraday  regarded  it  as  an  "electro- 
magnetic "  force.  Weber  explains  the  movement  of  the  planets  around 
the  sun  by  "electro-dynamism."  The  tails  of  comets,  always  turned 
away  from  the  sun,  indicate  a  solar  repulsion  coincident  with  the  at- 

I  traction.     We  know  no  more  to-day  than  in  the  time  of  Newton  what 

(  gravitation  really  is. 


416  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

It  is  the  same  case  as  that  of  the  cat  which  knows  how  to 
turn  of  itself,  without  any  outside  support  or  leverage,  when 
it  falls  from  a  roof,  and  always  falls  on  its  feet,  a  fact  con- 
trary to  the  principles  of  mechanics  taught  in  every  univer- 
sity in  the  world. 

12.  LlFTII^G  OF   VERY   HEAVY  PIECES   OF  FURNITURE. 

A  piano  weighing  more  than  750  pounds  rises  up  off  of 
its  two  front  legs,  and  it  is  ascertained  that  its  weight  varies. 
The  force  with  which  it  is  animated  arises  from  the  prox- 
imity of  a  child  eleven  years  old,  but  it  is  not  the  conscious 
will  of  this  child  which  acts. —  A  heavy  oak  dining-table  may 
rise  so  high  that  its  under  side  can  be  inspected  during  the 
levitation. 

13.  Displacement  of  objects  without  contact. 

A  heavy  easy-chair  moves  about  of  its  own  accord  in  the 
room.  Heavy  curtains  reaching  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor 
are  forcibly  swelled  out  as  if  by  a  gust  of  wind,  and  envelop 
as  wuth  a  hood  the  heads  of  persons  seated  at  a  table,  at  a 
distance  of  three  feet  and  more.  A  centre  table  persists  in 
the  endeavor  to  climb  upon  the  experiment-table  —  and  gets 
there.  While  a  sceptical  spectator  is  bantering  the  ''  spir- 
its," the  table  about  which  the  experiments  are  taking  place 
makes  a  move  towards  the  incredulous  person,  drawing  the 
sitters  along  with  it,  and  pins  him  to  the  wall  until  he  begs 
for  mercy. 

As  in  the  preceding  cases,  these  movements  may  represent 
the  expression  of  the  will  of  the  medium,  and  may  not  nec- 
essarily indicate  the  presence  of  a  mind  external  to  his  own. 
^Nevertheless  —  ? 

14.     Raps  and  typtology. 

In  tables,  in  pianos,  and  other  pieces  of  furniture,  in  the 
walls,  in  the  air,  raps  are  heard,  and  their  vibrations  per- 
ceived by  the  touch.  They  somewhat  resemble  the  sounds 
obtainable  by  tapping  against  a  piece  of  wood  with  the  joint 
of  the  bent  finger.  The  question  arises,  Whence  come  these 
noises?  The  question  is  asked  aloud.  They  are  repeated. 
The  request  is  made  that  a  certain  number  of  strokes  be 


EXPLAXATOEY  HYPOTHESES     417 

rapped.  The  raps  are  heard.  Well-knowai  airs  are  accom- 
panied by  raps  beaten  in  perfect  time  with  them  and  iden- 
tifiable as  the  counterpart  of  the  airs.  When  bits  of  musio 
are  played,  the  accompaniment  is  rapped  out.  Things  take 
place  as  if  an  invisible  being  were  listening  and  acting.  But 
how  could  a  being  without  acoustic  nerve  and  without  a  tym- 
panum hear  ?  The  sonorous  waves  must  strike  something  in 
order  to  be  interpreted.     Is  this  a  mental  transmission  ? 

These  raps  are  made.  Who  makes  them?  And  how? 
The  mysterious  force  emits  radiations  of  wave-lengths  inac- 
cessible to  our  retina,  but  powerful  and  rapid,  without  doubt 
more  rapid  than  those  of  light,  and  situated  beyond  the  ultra- 
violet.    Besides,  light  impedes  their  action. 

In  proportion  as  we  advance  in  the  examination  of  the 
phenomena,  the  psychic,  intellectual,  mental  element  is  more 
and  more  mingled  with  the  physical  and  mechanical  element. 
In  the  case  we  are  considering  we  are  forced  to  admit  the 
presence,  the  action,  of  a  thought.  Is  this  thought  simply 
that  of  the  medium,  of  the  chief  experimenter,  or  the  result- 
ant of  the  thoughts  of  all  the  sitters  united  ? 

Since  these  raps  or  those  made  by  the  legs  of  the  table,  on 
being  interrogated,  dictate  words  and  phrases  and  express 
ideas,  there  is  something  more  in  the  matter  than  a  simple 
mechanical  action.  The  unknown  force,  the  existence  of 
which  we  have  been  obliged  to  admit  in  the  preceding  observa- 
tions, is  in  this  case  at  the  ser\dce  of  an  intelligence.  The 
mystery  grows  complicated. 

It  is  owing  to  this  intellectual  element  that  I  proposed  (be- 
fore 1865;  see  p.  xix)  to  give  the  name  ''psychic''  to  this 
force,  a  name  proposed  anew  by  Crookes  in  1871.  We  saw 
also  that,  as  early  as  the  year  1855,  Thury  had  proposed  the 
name  ''  'psy diode  "  and  ''  ecteneic  "  force.  From  this  on,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  us  in  our  examination  not  to  take 
into  consideration  this  psychic  force. 

Up  to  this  point,  Gasparin's  fluid  might  suffice,  just  as  un- 
conscious muscular  action  sufficed  for  the  first  three  classes 
of  facts.  But  starting  from  this  fourteenth  class,  the  psychic 
order  plainly  manifests  itself  (and  even  in  the  preceding 
class  we  begin  already  to  divine  its  presence). 


418  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

15.     Mailet-blows. 

I  have  heard  —  as  have  all  other  experimenters  —  not  only 
sharp  light  raps  upon  a  table,  like  those  of  vhich  I  have  just 
been  speaking,  but  mallet-blows,  or  blows  of  the  fist  upon  a 
door,  capable  of  knocking  down  a  man  if  he  had  received 
them.  Generally,  these  tremendous  blows  are  a  protestation 
against  a  denial  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  sitters.  There  is  in 
them  an  intention,  a  will,  an  intelligence.  They  may  also 
be  due  to  the  medium,  who  is  indignant,  or  who  is  amusing 
himself  or  herself.  The  action  is  not  muscular;  for  the 
hands  and  feet  of  the  medium  are  held,  and  the  rapping  may 
occur  some  distance  away  from  him  or  her. 

16.       TOUCHINGS. 

Fraud  can  explain  those  w^hich  take  place  within  the  reach 
of  the  medium's  hands,  for  they  only  occur  in  the  darkness. 
But  they  have  been  felt  at  a  certain  distance  beyond  this 
reach  as  if  the  hands  of  the  medium  were  prolonged. 

lY.       ACTI0I^[  or  INVISIBLE  HANDS. 

An  accordion  in  an  open-work  case,  or  cage,  w^hich  keeps 
any  other  hand  from  touching  it,  is  held  in  one  hand  by  the 
end  opposite  the  keys.  Presently  the  instrument  begins  to 
lengthen  and  shorten  of  itself  and  plays  various  melodies. 
An  invisible  hand  with  fingers  (or  something  like  them), 
must  therefore  be  acting.  (Experiment  of  Crookes  with 
Home.)  As  the  reader  has  seen  I  repeated  this  experiment 
with  Eusapia. 

Another  time,  a  music-box,  the  handle  of  which  was  turned 
by  an  invisible  hand,  played  in  perfect  time  wdth  the  music 
movements  that  Eusapia  was  making  upon  my  cheek. 

An  invisible  hand  forcibly  snatched  from  my  hand  a  block 
of  paper  which  I  was  holding  out  with  extended  arm  at  the 
lieight  of  my  head. 

Invisible  hands  removed  from  M.  Schiaparelli's  head  his 
spectacles  (furnished  with  a  spring),  which  were  firmly  fas- 
toned  behind  his  ears,  and  that  so  nimbly  and  wdth  such  light 
touch  that  he  did  not  perceive  it  until  afterwards. 


EXPLANATORY  HYPOTHESES  419 

18'.     Apparitions  of  hands. 

,  The  hands  are  not  always  invisible.  Sometimes  semi-lu- 
minous ones  are  seen  to  appear  in  the  dim  light, —  hands  of 
men,  hands  of  women,  hands  of  children.  Sometimes  they 
have  clear-cut  outlines.  They  are  generally  firm  and  moist 
to  the  touch,  sometimes  icy  cold.  At  times  they  melt  away 
in  the  hand.  Eor  my  part  I  was  never  able  to  grasp  one. 
Jt  was  always  the  mysterious  hand  that  took  mine, —  often 
,feeling  through  a  curtain,  or  sometimes  by  nude  contact, 
\oT  pinching  my  ear,  or  running  its  fingers  through  my  hair 
with  great  rapidity. 

19.     Apparitions  of  heads. 

Eor  my  part,  I  have  only  seen  two :  the  bearded  silhouette 
at  Monfort-l'Amaury,  and  the  head  of  a  young  girl  with  high- 
arched  forehead,  in  my  drawing-room.  In  the  case  of  the 
first  I  had  believed  that  there  w^as  a  mask  held  at  the  end 
of  a  rod.  But  at  my  own  home,  there  was  no  possibility  of 
an  accomplice,  and  at  present  I  am  not  less  sure  of  the  first 
instance  than  of  the  other.  Moreover,  the  testimony  of  other 
observers  is  so  precise  and  so  often  given  that  it  is  imperative 
that  it  be  classed  with  my  own. 

20.     Phantoms. 

I  have  never  seen  any  of  these  nor  photographed  them,  but 
it  seems  to  me  impossible  to  be  sceptical  about  that  of  Katie 
King,  observed  for  three  consecutive  years  by  Crookes  and 
pthers  who  experimented  with  the  medium  Florence  Cook. 
One  can  scarcely  doubt,  also,  the  reality  of  the  phantoms  seen 
by  the  committee  of  the  Dialectical  Society  of  London.  We 
have  seen  that  trickery  plays  a  frequent  role  in  this  sort  of 
apparitions;  but,  in  the  experiments  just  mentioned,  the  ob- 
servations were  really  conducted  with  such  perspicacity  that 
they  are  safe  from  all  objection^  and  have  on  them  the  stamp 
3f  a  purely  scientific  character. 

These  phantoms,  like  the  heads  and  the  hands  mentioned, 
3eem  to  be  condensations  of  fluids  produced  by  the  powers  of 
the  medium,  and  do  not  prove  the  existence  of  independent 
spirits. 


420  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

When  the  hand  is  stretched  out,  the  rubbing  of  a  beard  can 
be  felt  upon  it.  This  happened  to  me,  as  well  as  to  others. 
Did  the  beard  really  exist,  or  was  it  only  a  case  of  tactual  and 
visual  sensations  ?  The  case  here  immediately  following 
pleads  in  favor  of  its  reality.  ^ 

21.     Impkessions  of  heads  and  of  hands. 

The  heads  and  the  hands  formed  are  sufficiently  dense  to 
leave  a  mould  of  their  features  and  shape  imprinted  in  the 
putty  or  the  clay.  Perhaps  the  most  curious  thing  is  that  it 
is  not  necessary  that  these  weird  formations,  these  forces,  be 
visible  in  order  to  produce  impressions.  We  have  seen  a  vig- 
orous gesture  imprint  itself  at  a  distance  in  clay. 

22.     Passing  of  matter  through  matter. —  Transfers,  ; 
or  the  bringing  in  of  objects. 

A  book  has  been  seen  passing  through  a  curtain.  A  bell 
has  passed  from  a  library-room,  locked  with  a  key,  into  a 
drawing-room.  A  floAver  has  been-  seen  passing  perpendic- 
ularly downw^ard  through  a  dining-room  table.  Some  have 
thought  they  had  ocular  proof  of  the  mysterious  appearance 
of  plants,  of  flowers,  of  fruits,  and  other  objects,  which  (as 
the  claim  went)  had  passed  through  w^alls,  ceilings,  doors. 

The  latter  phenomenon  took  place  several  times  in  my 
presence.  But  I  was  never  able  to  get  certain  proof  of  it 
under  unimpeachable  conditions;  and  I  have  ferreted  out 
many  a  trick. 

The  experiments  of  Zollner  (a  wooden  ring  entering  into 
anotlicr  wooden  ring,  a  string  tied  at  the  two  ends  making 
a  knot,  etc.)  would,  of  course,  be  a  thing  of  exceptional  in- 
terest if  the  medium  Slade  had  not  the  bad  reputation  of  be- 
ing just  a  skilful  prestidigitator, —  a  reputation  probably 
only  too  w^ell  merited.  I  should  think  that  there  is  good 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  experiments  of  Crookes  are  au- 
thentic. 

Has  space  only  three  dimensions  ?  We  will  set  this  ques- 
tion aside. 


EXPLANATORY  HYPOTHESES     421 

23.     Mak^ifestatioxs  dikected  by  AN"  ixteleigence. 

These  have  been  already  glimpsed  in  a  certain  number  of 
the  preceding  cases.  The  forces  in  action  here  are  of  the 
psychical  as  well  as  the  physical  class.  The  question  is  to 
know  whether  the  intellect  of  the  medium  and  of  the  sitters 
is  sufficient  to  explain  everything. 

In  all  the  cases  I  have  previously  mentioned,  this  intellect 
seem  to  suffice,  but  only  by  attributing  to  it  occult  faculties  of 
prodigious  potency. 

In  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  understand  the  way  in  which  mind,  conscious  or  un- 
conscious, can  lift  a  table,  make  raps  in  wood,  form  a  hand 
or  a  head,  stamp  an  imprint.  The  modus  operandi  is  abso- 
lutely unintelligible  to  us.  Future  science  will  perhaps  dis- 
cover it.  But  all  these  actions  never  overpass  the  limits  of 
man's  capacities,  and  let  us  admit,  the  capacity  required 
is  not  an  extraordinary  one. 

The  hypothesis  of  spirits  of  another  order  than  that  of 
living  human  beings  does  not  seem  to  be  necessary. 

The  hypothesis  of  the  doubling  of  the  ^Dsychic  personality 
of  the  medium  is  the  most  simple.  Is  it  sufficient  to  entirely 
satisfy  us  ? 

Hard  blows  on  the  table  like  those  of  a  fist,  contrasting 
,  with  gentle  taps,  may  have  this  origin,  in  spite  of  appear- 
■  ance. 

It  is  the  same  with  apparitions  of  the  hands,  of  heads,  of 
spectral  forms.  We  cannot  declare  this  origin  of  the  phe- 
nomena to  be  impossible;  and  it  is  more  simple  than  to  as- 
sume that  they  are  due  to  wandering  spirits. 

The  conveying  of  objects  over  the  heads  of  the  experiment- 
ers in  complete  darkness,  without  touching  either  chandelier 
,  or  heads,  is  scarcely  comprehensible.  But  do  we  understand 
any  better  how  a  spirit  can  have  hands  ?  And  if  it  did, 
might  it  not  amuse  itself  thus  ?  Spectacles  are  taken  from  a 
face  without  the  act  being  perceived;  a  handkerchief  is  re- 
moved from  the  neck,  then  snatched  from  between  the  teeth 
that  are  holding  it;  a  fan  is  transferred  from  one  pocket  to 
another.     Do  latent  faculties  of  the  human  organism  suf- 


422  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

fice  to  explain  these  intentional  actions  ?     It  is  right  for  ns 
neither  to  affirm  nor  to  deny. 

I  have  thus  passed  in  review  the  whole  series  of  pnenomena 
to  be  explained,  at  least  all  those  within  the  limits  of  the 
plan  of  this  work. 

A  first,  and  obviously  safe,  conclusion  is  that  man  has 
in  himself  a  fluidic  and  psychic  force  whose  nature  is  still 
unknown,  but  which  is  capable  of  acting  at  a  distance  upon 
matter  and  of  moving  the  same. 

This  force  is  the  expression  of  our  will,  of  our  desires; 
I  mean  as  it  appears  in  the  first  ten  cases  of  the  preceding 
classifications.  For  the  other  cases  we  must  add  the  uncon- 
scious, the  unforeseen,  wills  different  from  our  conscious 
wills. 

The  force  is  at  once  physical  and  psychical.  If  the  me- 
dium puts  forth  a  force  of  twelve  or  fourteen  pounds  to  lift 
a  table,  his  weight  undergoes  a  corresponding  increase.  The 
hand  which  we  see  forming  near  him  is  able  to  grasp  an  ob- 
ject. The  hand  really  exists,  and  is  then  reabsorbed.  Might 
we  not  compare  the  force  which  brings  it  into  existence  with 
that  building-force  of  nature,  which  reproduces  a  claw  for  the 
lobster  and  a  tail  for  the  lizard  ?  The  intervention  of  spirits 
is  not  all  indispensable."^ 

*  It  is  not  indispensable,  even  in  certain  cases  in  which  it  seems  to  be 
so.  Let  us  take  an  example.  At  a  s6ance  in  Genoa  (1906),  with  Eu- 
sapia,  M.  Youri^vich,  general  secretary  of  the  Psychological  Institute  of 
Paris,  besought  the  spirit  of  his  father,  who  asserted  that  he  was  pres- 
ent before  him  in  ghostly  form,  to  give  him  a  proof  of  identity  by 
producing  in  the  clay  an  impression  of  his  hand,  and  above  all  of  a 
finger  the  nail  of  which  was  long  and  pointed.  The  request  was  made 
in  Russian,  which  the  medium  did  not  understand.  Now  this  impres- 
sion was  sure  enough  obtained  several  months  after,  with  the  mark  of 
the  nail  referred  to.  Does  this  fact  prove  that  the  soul  of  the  father 
of  the  experimenter  actually  performed  the  act  with  his  hand?  No. 
The  medium  received  the  mental  suggestion  for  producing  the  pheno- 
menon, and  did  in  fact  produce  it.  The  Russian  language  did  not  make 
any  difference.  The  suggestion  was  received.  Besides,  the  hand  waa 
much  smaller  than  that  of  the  man  whose  spirit  was  evoked. 

The   experimenter   next   asks   his    deceased   father   to  give   him   his 


expla:n'atory  hypotheses         423 

i  In  mediumistic  experiments  things  happen  as  if  an  invisi- 
ble being  were  present,  able  to  transport  the  different  objects 
through  the  air,  usually  without  striking  against  the  heads 
of  the  persons  who  are  sitting  in  various  parts  of  the  room  in 
almost  complete  darkness ;  capable  also  of  acting  upon  a  cur- 
tain like  a  strong  wind,  pushing  it  far  out,  able  to  fling  this 
curtain  over  your  head,  giving  you  a  Capuchin  hood  or 
coiffure,  and  pressing  strongly  against  your  body,  as  if  with 
two  nervous  arms,  and  touching  you  with  a  warm  and  living 
hand.  I  have  perceived  these  hands  in  the  most  unmistak- 
ble  way.  The  invisible  being  can  condense  itself  sufficiently 
to  become  visible,  and  I  have  seen  it  passing  in  the  air.  To 
suppose  that  I,  as  well  as  other  experimenters,  was  the  dupe 
of  an  hallucination  is  an  hypothesis  which  cannot  be  main- 
tained for  a  single  moment  and  would  simply  show  that  those 
who  entertained  the  idea  were  far  more  likely  to  have  an 
hallucination  than  w^e  were,  or  else  that  they  entertained  the 
most  inexcusable  prepossession  and  prejudice.  We  were  in 
the  best  possible  condition  for  observing  and  analysizing 
any  phenomena  whatever  and  no  sceptic  will  make  us  be- 

fflieve  anything  different  on  this  point. 
■     There  is  certainly  an  invisible  prolongation  of  the  organ- 
ism of  the  medium.     This  prolongation  may  be  compared  to 
the  radiation  which  leaps  from  the  loadstone  to  reach  a  bit 
.  'of  iron  and  put  it  into  movement. 

1 1  We  can  also  compare  it  with  the  effluvium  which  emanates 
from  electrified  bodies.* 

blessing,  and  he  perceives  a  hand  which  makes  the  sign  of  the  cross  be- 
fore him  (in  the  Russian  style,  the  three  fingers  together)  upon  the 
forehead,  the  breast,  and  the  two  sides.  The  same  explanation  is  ap- 
plicable here. 

It  was  a  mistake  to  say  that  this  ghost  and  his  son  conversed  to- 
gether in  the  Russian  tongue,  as  the  published  account  said.  M. 
Youri^vich  only  heard  some  unintelligible  sounds.  People  always  ex- 
aggerate, and  these  exaggerations  work  the  greatest  possible  harm  to 
the  truth.  Why  amplify?  Is  there  not  enough  of  the  unknown  in 
these  mysterious  phenomena? 

*  In  certain  countries  (Canada,  Cclorado),  a  gas-jet  can  be  lighted 
by  holding  out  the  finger  toward  it. 


1 

424  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  POECES 

I  also  compared  it  some  pages  back  to  calorific  waves. 

When  a  medium  makes  a  gesture  of  striking  the  table 
with  his  closed  fist,  but  stops  short  at  a  distance  of  from 
eight  to  twelve  inches,  and  when,  at  every  gesture,  a  sonorous 
stroke  of  the  fist  echoes  in  the  table,  we  see  in  that  the  proof 
of  a  dynamic  prolongation  of  the  arm  of  the  medium. 

When  she  pretends  to  imitate  on  my  cheek  the  rotation  of 
the  crank  of  a  music-box,  and  when  this  box  keeps  time  with 
the  imitated  movement,  stops  when  the  fingers  stop,  plays 
the  tune  faster  when  the  finger  accelerates  its  circular  trac- 
ings, goes  slower  when  it  goes  slower,  etc.,  we  have  here  again 
proof  of  dynamic  action  at  a  distance. 

When  an  accordion  plays  of  its  own  will,  when  a  bell  be- 
gins to  ring  of  itself,  when  a  lever  indicates  such  and  such 
a  pressure^  there  is  a  real  force  in  action. 

We  must  therefore  admit,  first  of  all,  this  prolongation  of 
the  muscular  and  nervous  force  of  the  subject.  I  am  keenly 
sensible  of  the  fact  that  this  is  a  bold  proposition,  almost  in- 
credible, most  strange  and  extraordinary;  but  after  all  the 
facts  are  there,  and  whether  the  matter  irks  us  or  not  is  a 
small  matter. 

This  prolongation  is  real,  and  only  extends  to  a  certain 
distance  from  the  medium,  a  distance  which  can  be  measured, 
and  which  varies  according  to  circumstances.  But  is  it  suffi- 
cient to  explain  all  the  observed  phenomena  ? 

We  are  forced  to  admit  that  this  prolongation,  usually  in- 
visible, and  impalpable,  may  become  visible  and  palpable; 
take,  especially,  the  form  of  an  articulated  hand,  with  flesh 
and  muscles ;  and  reveal  the  exact  form  of  a  head  or  a  body. 
The  fact  is  incomprehensible;  but  after  so  many  different 
observations,  it  seems  to  me  impossible  to  see  in  this  curious 
phenomenon  only  trickery  or  hallucination.  Logic  lays  its 
laws  upon  us  and  commands  our  respect. 

A  fluidic  and  condensable  double  has  therefore  the  power 


EXPLAJN-ATORY  HYPOTHESES  425 

of  gliding  momentarily  out  from  the  body  of  the  medium  (for 
his  presence  is  indispensable). 

How  can  this  double,  this  fluidic  body  have  the  consist- 
ency of  flesh  and  of  muscles?  We  do  not  understand  it. 
But  it  would  neither  be  wise  nor  intelligent  to  admit  only 
that  which  we  can  comprehend.  It  must  be  remembered 
that,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  we  imagine  we  compre- 
hend things  because  we  can  give  an  explanation  of  them ;  that 
is  all.  !N'ow  this  explanation  rarely  has  any  intrinsic 
value.  It  is  only  a  framework  of  words  tacked  together. 
Thus  you  fancy  you  understand  why  an  apple  falls  from 
the  top  of  the  tree,  because  you  say  that  the  earth  attracts 
it.  This  is  pure  simple-mindedness.  For  in  what  does 
the  attraction  of  the  earth  consist?  You  know  nothing 
about  it ;  but  you  are  satisfied,  because  the  fact  is  a  common 
one. 

When  the  curtain  is  inflated  as  if  pushed  out  by  a  hand, 
and  when  you  feel  you  are  pinched  in  the  shoulder  by  a  hand 
at  the  moment  the  curtain  touches  you,  you  have  the  impres- 
sion that  you  are  the  dupe  of  an  accomplice  hidden  behind 
the  curtain.  There  is  some  one  there  who  is  playing  a  prac- 
tical joke  on  you.     You  draw  aside  the  curtain.     Nothing! 

Since  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  admit  a  trick  of  any  kind, 
because  you,  and  you  alone,  hung  that  curtain  between  the 
two  walls ;  and  since  you  know  that  there  is  no  person  behind 
it  because  you  are  close  by  it  and  have  not  lost  it  out  of  your 
sight;  and  since  the  medium  is  seated  near  you  with  his,  or 
her,  hands  and  legs  held,  you  are  forced  to  admit  that  a  tem- 
porarily materialized  being  has  touched  you. 

It  is  certain  that  these  facts  may  be  denied  and  that  they 
are  denied.  Those  who  have  not  personally  verified  them  are 
excusable.  It  is  not  a  question  of  ordinary  events  which  take 
place  every  day  and  which  everybody  can  observe.  It  is 
evident,   as   a  general  proposition,  that,   if  we  admit  only; 


426  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

-what  we  have  ourselves  seen,  we  shall  not  get  very  far.  We 
admit  the  existence  of  the  Philippine  Islands  without  having 
been  there,  of  Charlemagne  and  of  Julius  Csesar  without 
having  seen  them,  of  total  eclipses  of  the  sun,  volcanic  erup- 
tions, earthquakes,  etc.,  as  facts  of  which  we  have  not  our- 
selves been  eye-witnesses.  The  distance  of  a  star,  the  weight 
of  a  planet,  the  composition  of  one  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
the  most  marvelous  discoveries  of  astronomy,  do  not  excite 
scepticism,  except  in  the  minds  of  wholly  uncultivated 
persons,  because  people  in  general  appreciate  the  value  of 
astronomic  methods.  But  undoubtedly,  in  these  psychical 
matters,  the  phenomena  are  so  extraordinary  that  one  is  ex- 
cusable for  not  believing  them. 

Nevertheless,  if  anyone  will  give  himself  the  trouble  to 
reason  he  will  positively  be  compelled  to  recognize  that,  in 
following  on  this  trail,  he  is  inevitably  brought  to  a  stand  in 
face  of  the  following  dilemma :  either  the  experimenters 
have  been  the  dupes  of  the  mediums,  who  have  uniformly 
cheated,  or  else  these  stupefying  facts  actually  exist.  Xow 
since  the  first  hypothesis  is  eliminated,  we  are  forced  to  ad- 
mit the  reality  of  the  occurrences. 

A  fluidic  body  is  formed  at  the  expense  of  the  medium, 
emerges  from  his  organism,  moves,  acts.  What  is  the  in- 
telligent force  that  directs  this  fluidic  body  and  makes  it  act 
in  such  or  such  a  way  ?  Either  it  is  the  mind  of  the  me- 
dium, or  it  is  another  mind  that  makes  use  of  this  same  fluid. 
There  is  no  escape  from  this  conclusion.  I  may  remark  that 
the  meteorological  conditions,  fine  weather,  agreeable  tem- 
perature, cheerfulness,  high  spirits,  favor  the  phenomena; 
that  the  medium  is  never  wholly  out  of  touch  with  the  mani- 
festations, and  frequently  knows  what  is  going  to  take  place ; 
that  the  cause  escapes  the  mental  grasp  and  is  fugitive  and 
capricious ;  and  that  the  apparitions  fade  away  like  a  dream 
as  silently  as  they  are  formed. 


expla:n"atory  hypotheses         427 

ISTote  also  that,  in  important  manifestations,  the  medium 
suffers,  complains,  groans,  loses  an  enormous  amount  of 
force,  exhibits  an  astonishing  nervous  energy,  experiences 
hypersesthesia,  and  at  the  apogee  of  the  manifestation,  seems 
for  an  instant  to  be  absolutely  prostrated.  And,  in  truth, 
why  should  not  his  mind  as  well  as  his  fluidic  force  be  haled 
out  of  his  body  and  be  exhausted  in  external  work?  The 
psychical  force  of  a  living  human  being  is  able,  then,  to 
create  "  material  "  phenomena  —  organs,  spectral  figures. 

But  what  is  matter  ? 

My  readers  know  that  matter  does  not  exist  as  it  is  per- 
ceived by  our  senses.  These  only  give  us  incomplete  im- 
pressions of  an  Unknown  Reality.  Analysis  shows  us  that 
matter  is  only  a  form  of  energy. 

In  the  work  called  A  Propos  d'  Eusapia  Paladino,  which 
sums  up  his  experiments  with  this  medium,  M.  Guillaume 
de  Fontenay  ingeniously  tries  to  explain  the  phenomena  by 
the  dynamic  theory  of  matter.  It  is  probable  that  this  ex- 
planation is  one  of  those  that  make  the  nearest  approach  to 
the  truth. 

According  to  this  theory,  the  quality  which  seems  to  us 
characteristic  of  matter  —  solidity,  stability  —  is  no  more 
substantial  than  the  light  which  strikes  our  eyes,  or  the  sound 
which  enters  our  ears.  We  see;  that  is  to  say,  we  receive 
upon  the  retina  rays  which  affect  it.  But  around  and  on 
every  side  of  the.  retina  undulate  countless  other  rays  that 
leave  no  impression  upon  it.  It  is  the  same  w4th  the  other 
senses. 

Matter,  like  light,  like  heat,  like  electricity,  seems  to  be 
the  result  of  a  species  of  movement.  Movement  of  what? 
Of  the  primitive  monistic  substance,  quickened  by  manifold 
vibrations. 

Most  assuredly^  matter  is  not  that  inert  thing  that  we  com- 
monly suppose. 


VI 

428  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

A  comparison  will  aid  in  comprehending  this.  Take  a 
carriage-wheel.  Place  it  horizontally  on  a  pivot.  While 
the  wheel  is  motionless,  let  a  rubber  ball  fall  between  its 
spokes.  This  ball  will  almost  always  pass  through  between 
the  spokes.  J^ow  give  a  slight  movement  to  the  wheel. 
The  ball  will  be  pretty  often  hit  by  the  revolving  spokes, 
and  will  rebound.  If  we  increase  the  rotation,  the  ball  will 
noAv  no  longer  pass  through  the  wheel,  which  will  have  be- 
come for  it  a  wholly  impenetrable  disc. 

We  can  try  a  similar  experiment  by  arranging  the  wheel 
vertically  and  shooting  arrows  through  it.  A  bicycle-wheel 
will  serve  the  purpose  very  well,  owing  to  the  slenderness 
of  its  spokes.  When  not  in  movement,  the  arrows  will  pass 
through  it  nine  times  out  of  ten.  In  movement,  it  will  pro- 
duce in  the  arrows  deviations  more  or  less  marked.  With 
increase  in  the  speed,  it  w^onld  be  made  impenetrable,  and 
all  the  arrows  would  be  broken  as  if  against  the  steel  plating 
of  an  armored  shij). 

These  comparisons  allow  ns  to  understand  how  matter  is 
really  only  a  mode  of  motion,  only  an  expression  of  force,  a 
manifestation  of  energy.  It  will  disappear  (it  must  be 
borne  in  mind)  on  analysis,  which  ends  by  taking  refuge 
in  the  intangible,  invisible,  imponderable,  and  almost  im- 
material atom.  The  atom  itself  wdiich  was  regarded  as  the 
basis  of  mattert  fifty  years  ago,  has  now  disappeared,  or 
rather  has  been  metamorphosed  and  reappears  as  a  hypothet- 
ical, impalpable  vortex. 

I  will  allow  myself  to  repeat  here  what  I  have  said  a  hun- 
dred times  elsewhere:     The  universe  is  a  dynamism. 

The  difficulty  we  have  in  explaining  to  ourselves  appari- 
tions, materializations,  when  we  try  to  apply  to  them  the 
ordinary  conception  of  matter,  is  considerably  lessened  the 
moment  we  conceive  that  matter  is  only  a  mode  of  motion. 

Life  itself^  from  the  most  rudimentary  cell  up  to  the  most 


EXPLAIvTATOEY  HYPOTHESES  429 

complicated  organism,  is  a  special  kind  of  movement,  a  move- 
ment determined  and  organized  by  a  directing  force.  Ac- 
cording to  this  theory,  momentary  apparitions  wonld  be 
less  difficult  to  accept  and  to  comprehend.  The  vital  force 
of  the  medium  might  externalize  itself  and  produce  in  a 
point  of  space  a  vibratory  system  which  should  be  the  counter- 
part of  itself,  in  a  more  or  less  advanced  degree  of  visibility 
and  solidity.  These  phenomena  can  with  difficulty  be 
reconciled  with  the  old  hypothesis  of  the  independent  and 
intrinsic  existence  of  matter :  They  better  fit  that  of  matter 
as  a  mode  of  motion  —  in  a  word,  simple  movement,  giving 
the  sensation  of  matter. 

There  is,  of  course,  only  one  substance,  the  primitive  sub- 
stance, which  antedates  the  original  nebula  —  the  womb 
from  which  all  bodies  in  the  universe  have  issued.  The  sub- 
stances which  the  chemists  take  to  be  simple  bodies  —  oxygen, 
hydrogen,  azote,  iron,  gold,  silver,  etc. —  are  mineral  ele- 
ments which  have  been  gradually  formed  and  differentiated, 
just  as,  later,  the  vegetable  and  animal  species  were  differ- 
entiated. And  not  only  is  the  substance  of  the  world  one, 
but  it  also  has  the  same  origin  as  energy,  and  these  two  forms 
are  mutually  interchangeable.  Nothing  is  lost,  nothing  is 
created,  everything  is  transformed.* 

The  unique  substance  is  immaterial  and  unknowable  in  its 
essence.  We  see  and  touch  only  its  condensations,  its  aggre- 
gations, its  arrangements ;  that  is  to  say,  forms  produced  by 
movement.     Matter,  force,  life,  thought,  are  all  one. 

In  reality,  there  is  only  one  principle  in  the  universe,  and 
it  is  at  once  intelligence,  force,  and  matter,  embracing  all 
that  is  and  all  that  possibly  can  be.  That  which  we  call 
matter  is  only  a  form  of  motion.  At  the  basis  of  all  is  force, 
dynamism,  and  universal  mind,  or  spirit. 

*  See  what  I  formerly  wrote  on  this  subject  in  Lumen,  in  Uranie,  in 
Stella,  and  in  my  Discours  sur  l' unite  de  force  et  V unite  de  substance, 
published  in  VAnnuaire  du  Cosmos,  for  1865. 


430  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Visible  matter,  which  stands  to  us  at  the  present  moment 
for  the  universe,  and  which  certain  classic  doctrines  consider 
as  the  origin  of  all  things  —  movement,  life,  thought  —  is 
only  a  word  void  of  meaning.  The  universe  is  a  great  organ- 
ism controlled  by  a  dynamism  of  the  psychical  order.  Mind 
gleams  through  its  every  atom. 

The  environment  or  atmosphere  is  psychic.  There  is 
mind  in  every  thing,  not  only  in  human  and  animal  life,  but 
in  plants,  in  minerals,  in  space. 

It  is  not  the  body  which  produces  life:  it  is  rather  life 
which  organizes  the  body.  Does  not  the  will  to  live  increase 
the  viability  of  enfeebled  persons,  just  as  the  giving  up  of 
the  wish  to  live  may  abridge  life  and  even  extinguish  it  ? 

Your  heart  beats,  night  and  day,  w^hatever  be  the  position 
of  your  body.  It  is  a  well-mounted  spring.  Who  or  what 
adjusted  this  elastic  spring  ? 

The  embryo  is  formed  in  the  womb  of  the  mother,  in  the 
egg  of  the  bird.  There  is  neither  heart  nor  brain.  At  a 
certain  moment  the  heart  beats  for  the  first  time.  Sublime 
moment !  It  will  beat  in  the  child,  in  the  adolescent,  in  the 
man,  in  the  woman,  at  the  rate  of  about  100,000  pulsations 
a  day,  of  36,500,000  a  year,  of  1,825,000,000  in  fifty 
years.  This  heart  that  has  just  been  formed  is  going  to 
beat  a  thousand  millions  of  pulsations,  two  thousand  millions, 
three  thousand  millions,  a  number  determined  by  its  in- 
herent force;  then  it  will  stop  and  the  body  will  fall  into 
ruins.  Who  or  what  wound  up  this  watch  once  for  all  ? 
Dynamism,  the  vital  energy. 

What  sustains  the  earth  in  space?  f* 

Dynamism,  the  velocity  of  its  movement.  i 

What  is  it  in  the  bullet  that  kills  ?  I 

Its  velocity.  ^ 

Everywhere  energy,  everywhere  the  invisible  element.  It 
is  this  same  dynamism  that  produces  the  phenomena  we  have 


EXPLAXATOEY  HYPOTHESES  431 

been  studying.  The  question  at  present  resolves  itself  into 
this:  Does  this  dynamism  belong  wholly  to  the  experi- 
menters? We  have  so  little  real  knowledge  of  our  mental 
nature  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  know  what  this  nature 
is  capable  of  producing,  even  in  certain  states  of  unconscious- 
ness—  in  fact  especially  in  these.  The  directing  intelli- 
gence is  not  always  the  personal,  normal,  intelligence  of  the 
experimenters  or  of  any  one  whatever  among  them.  We  ask 
the  entity  wdiat  its  name  is,  and  it  gives  us  a  name  which  is 
not  ours;  it  replies  to  our  questions,  and  usually  claims  to 
be  a  discamate  soul,  the  spirit  of  a  deceased  person.  But 
if  we  drive  the  question  home,  this  entity  finally  steals  away 
without  having  given  us  sufficient  proofs  of  its  identity. 
There  results  from  this  the  impression  that  the  "  medium," 
or  principal  subject  of  the  experiment,  has  responded  for 
himself,  has  reflected  himself,  without  knowing  it. 

Moreover,  this  entity,  this  personality,  this  spirit,  has  his 
individual  w^ill^  his  caprices,  his  cantankerousness,  and  some- 
times acts  in  opposition  to  our  own  thoughts.  He  tells  us 
absurd,  foolish,  brutal,  insane  things,  and  amuses  himself 
with  fantastic  combinations  of  letters,  real  head-splitting 
puzzles.     It  astonishes  and  stupefies  us. 

What  is  this  being  ? 

Two  inescapable  hypotheses  present  themselves.  Either 
it  is  we  who  produce  these  phenomena  or  it  is  spirits.  But 
mark  this  well:  these  spirits  are  not  necessarily  the  souls  of 
the  dead ;  for  other  kinds  of  spiritual  beings  may  exist,  and 
space  may  be  full  of  them  without  our  ever  knowing  any- 
thing about  it,  except  under  unusual  circumstances.  Do  we 
not  find  in  the  different  ancient  literatures,  demons,  angels, 
gnomes,  goblins,  sprites,  spectres,  elementals,  etc?  Perhaps 
these  legends  are  not  without  some  foundation  in  fact. 
Then  we  cannot  but  remark  that,  in  our  mediumistic  studies 
and  experiments,  in  order  to  succeed  we  always  address  an 


432  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

invisible  being  who  is  supposed  to  hear  us.  If  this  is  an 
illusion,  it  dates  from  the  very  origin  of  Spiritualism,  from 
the  raps  produced  unconsciously  by  the  Fox  sisters  in  their 
chambers  at  Hydesville  and  at  Rochester  in  1848.  But  once 
more,  this  personification  may  pertain  to  our  own  being  or  it 
may  represent  a  mind  external  to  ourselves. 

In  order  to  admit  the  first  hypothesis  we  must  admit  at 
the  same  time  that  our  mental  nature  is  not  simple,  that  there 
are  in  us  several  psychic  elements,  and  that  one  at  least  of 
these  elements  may  act  unknown  to  ourselves,  make  raps  in  a 
table,  move  any  piece  of  furniture,  lift  a  weight,  touch  us 
with  a  hand  that  seems  real,  play  an  instrument,  create  a 
spectral  figure,  read  hidden  words,  answer  questions,  act  with 
a  personal  will  —  and  all  this,  I  repeat,  without  our  o^vn 
knowledge.  S| 

This  is  tolerably  complicated ;  but  it  is  not  impossible. 

That  there  are  in  us  psychic  elements,  obscure,  uncon- 
scious, capable  of  acting  outside  of  the  sphere  of  our  normal 
consciousness,  this  is  something  w^e  can  notice  every  night  in 
our  dreams ;  that  is  to  say,  during  a  quarter,  or  a  third  part 
of  our  life.  Scarcely  has  sleep  closed  our  eyes,  our  ears,  all 
our  senses,  than  our  thoughts  begin  to  work  just  the  same  as 
during  the  day,  though  without  rational  direction,  without 
logic,  under  the  most  incoherent  forms,  freed  from  our  custo- 
mary conceptions  of  space  and  time,  in  a  world  entirely 
different  from  the  normal  world.  The  physiologists  and 
psychologists  have  for  centuries  been  trying  to  determine  the 
mechanism  of  the  dream  without  having  yet  obtained  any 
satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem.  But  the  proved  fact 
that  we  see  sometimes,  in  our  dreams,  occurrences  which 
take  place  at  a  distance,  proves  that  we  have  in  us  unknown 
powers. 

Again,  it  is  not  rare  for  each  of  us  to  experience,  sometimes 
(all  our  faculties  being  on  the  alert),  the  play  of  an  interior 


EXPLAXATOEY  HYPOTHESES     433 

power,  distinct  from  our  dominant  reason.  We  are  on  the 
point  of  pronouncing  words  that  are  not  a  part  of  our  habit- 
ual vocabulary,  and  ideas  suddenly  traverse  and  arrest  the 
course  of  our  thoughts.  During  the  reading  of  a  book  which 
seemed  interesting  to  us,  our  soul  spreads  her  wings  and  flies 
to  other  realms,  while  our  eyes  continue  in  vain  the  mechani- 
cal act  of  reading.  We  are  discussing  certain  projects  in  our 
mind,  as  if  w^e  were  so  many  judges ;  and  then,  one  would  like 
to  know  in  all  simplicity,  whence  comes  this  distraction  ? 

In  his  tireless  researches,  the  great  investigator  of  psychic 
phenomena,  Myers,  to  whom  we  owe  synthetic  studies  upon 
the  subliminal  consciousness,  reached  the  conviction,  with 
Ribot,  that  "  the  me  is  a  co-ordination." 

These  supernormal  phenomena  (writes  this  competent  and 
learned  inquirer)  are  due  not  to  the  action  of  the  spirits  of 
deceased  persons,  as  Wallace  believes,  but,  for  the  most  part, 
to  the  action  of  an  incarnate  spirit,  either  that  of  the  sub- 
ject himself  or  of  some  agent  or  other.* 

The  word  "  subliminal  "  means  what  is  beneath  the  thresh- 
old (limen)  of  the  consciousness, —  the  sensations,  the 
thoughts,  the  memories,  which  remain  at  the  bottom,  and 
seem  to  represent  a  kind  of  sleeping  me.  I  do  not  pretend 
to  aflSrm  (adds  the  author)  that  there  always  exists  in  us  two 
me's  correlative  and  parallel:  I  denote  rather  by  the  sub- 
liminal me  that  part  of  the  me  which  ordinarily  remains 
latent,  and  I  admit  that  there  may  be  not  merely  co-oper- 
ation between  these  two  quasi-independent  currents  of 
thoughts,  but  also  changes  of  level  and  alternations  of  per- 
sonality, f  Medical  observation  (Felida,  Alma)  proves  that 
'  there  is  in  us  a  rudimentary  supernormal  faculty,  something 
'  which  is  probably  useless  to  us,  but  which  indicates  the  exist- 
ence, beneath  the  level  of  our  consciousness,  of  a  reserve  of 
latent  unsuspected  faculties.:!: 

What  is  it  that  is  active  in  us  in  telepathic  phenomena? 

*The  Human  Personality,  p.  11. 
t  Id.,  p.  23. 
tid.,  p.  63. 


434  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

We  may  recall  the  case  of  Thomas  Garrison  (^Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  VIII,  p.  125)  who,  while  sitting  with 
his  wife  at  a  religious  service,  suddenly  gets  up  in  the  middle 
of  the  sermon,  goes  out  of  the  church,  and,  as  if  impelled  by 
an  irresistible  impulse,  walks  twenty  miles  afoot  to  go  to  see 
his  mother,  whom  he  finds  dead  on  his  arrival,  although  he 
did  not  know  that  she  was  ill  and  although  she  was  relatively 
young  (fifty-eight  years).  I  have  a  hundred  observations 
similar  to  this  in  writing  before  me.  It  is  not  our  normal 
habitual  nature  that  is  in  action  in  such  a  case  as  this. 

There  is  probably  in  us,  more  or  less  sentient,  a  sub-con- 
scious nature,  and  it  is  this  which  seems  to  be  at  work  in 
mediumistic  experiences.  I  am  pretty  much  of  the  opinion 
Myers  expresses  in  the  following  paragTaph :  * 

Spiritualists  attribute  the  movement  and  the  dictations  at 
their  seances  to  the  action  of  disembodied  intelligences.  But 
if  a  table  execute  movements  without  being  touched,  there 
is  no  reason  to  attribute  these  movements  to  the  intervention 
of  my  deceased  grandfather,  rather  than  to  my  own  proper 
intervention;  for  if  I  do  not  see  how  I  could  have  done  it 
myself,  it  is  not  clear  to  me  how  the  effect  could  have  been 
produced  by  the  action  of  my  grandfather.  As  for  dicta- 
tions, the  most  plausible  explanation  seems  to  me  to  be  for 
us  to  admit  that  they  do  not  come  from  the  conscious  me, 
but  from  that  profound  and  hidden  region  where  fragmen- 
tary and  incoherent  dreams  are  elaborated. 

This  explanatory  hypothesis  is  held,  with  an  important 
modification,  by  a  distinguished  savant  to  whom  also  we  owe 
long  and  patient  researches  into  the  obscure  phenomena  of 
normal  psychology ;  I  mean  Dr.  Geley,  who  thus  sums  up  his 
own  conclusions : 

A  certain  amount  of  the  force,  intelligence,  and  matter 
of  the  body  may  perform  work  outside  of  the  organism, — 

*  The  Human  Pcrsonaliti/,  p.  313. 


» 


EXPLAIS^ATOEY  HYPOTHESES  435 

act,  perceive,  organize,  and  think  without  the  collaboration 
,of  muscles,  organs,  senses  and  brain.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  the  uplifted  sub-conscious  portion  of  our  being.  It 
constitutes,  in  truth,  an  extemalizable  sub-conscious  nature, 
existing  in  the  me  with  the  normal  conscious  nature.* 

This  sub-conscious  nature  does  not  seem  to  depend  upon  the 
organism.  It  is  probably  anterior  to  it,  and  will  sur\^ive  it. 
It  seems  to  be  superior  to  it,  endowed  with  powers  and  ac- 
quirements very  different  from  the  powers  and  acquirements 
of  the  normal,  supernormal,  and  transcendent  consciousness. 
I;  Assuredly,  there  is  in  this  view  of  the  case  more  than  one 
mystery  still,  were  it  only  the  feat  of  performing  a  material 
act  at  a  distance,  and  that  (not  less  strange)  of  apparently 
having  nothing  to  do  with  that  kind  of  an  act. 

The  first  rule  of  the  scientific  method  is  first  to  seek  expla- 
nations in  the  known  before  having  recourse  to  the  unknown, 
and  we  should  never  fail  to  comply  with  this  rule.  But  if 
this  method  of  sailing  does  not  bring  us  to  port,  it  is  our  duty 
,  to  confess  it. 

I  very  much  fear  that  that  is  what  is  the  matter  here.  We 
are  not  satisfied.  The  explanation  is  not  clear,  and  is  float- 
ing a  little  too  much  at  random  in  the  waves  —  and  the  wav- 
ering uncertainty  —  of  the  hypothesis. 

At  the  point  at  which  we  have  now  arrived  in  this  chapter 
of  explanations  we  are  precisely  in  the  position  of  Alexander 
Aksakof  when  he  wrote  his  great  work,  Anhnism  and  Spirit- 
ualism, in  reply  to  the  book  of  Dr.  von  Hartmann  on  Spirit- 
ualism, Hartman  claimed  to  explain  all  of  these  psychical 
phenomena  by  the  following  hypothesis. 

A  nervous  force  producing,  outside  of  the  limits  of  the 
human  body,  mechanical  and  plastic  effects. 

Duplicate  hallucinations  of  this  same  nervous  force,  and 
producing  also  physical  and  plastic  effects. 

*  The  Sulconscious  Nature,  p.  82. 


436  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

A  latent  somnambulistic  consciousness,  capable  (the  sub- 
ject being  in  his  normal  state)  of  reading  in  the  intellectual 
background  of  another  man,  his  present  and  his  past,  and 
being  able  to  divine  the  future. 

Akaskof  tried  to  see  if  these  hypotheses  (the  last  of  which 
is  a  pretty  bold  one)  are  sufficient  to  explain  everything,  and 
he  concludes  that  they  are  not.  That  is  also  my  opinion. 
There  is  something  else.  This  something  else,  this  residue 
at  the  bottom  of  the  crucible  of  experiment,  is  a  psychic  ele- 
ment, the  nature  of  which  remains  still  wholly  hidden  from 
us.  I  think  that  all  the  readers  of  this  book  will  share  my 
conviction. 

Anthropomorphic  hypotheses  are  far  from  explaining 
everything.  Besides,  they  are  only  hypotheses.  We  must  not 
hide  from  ourselves  that  these  phenomena  introduce  us  into 
another  world,  into  an  imknown  world,  one  that  is  still  to 
be  explored  in  its  whole  extent. 

As  to  beings  different  from  ourselves, —  what  may  their 
nature  be  ?  Of  this  we  cannot  form  any  idea.  Souls  of  the 
dead  ?  This  is  very  far  from  being  demonstrated.  The  in- 
numerable obser\^ations  which  I  have  collected  during  more 
than  forty  years  all  prove  to  me  the  contrary.  No  satisfac-  i 
tory   identification  has  been  made."  a| 

The  communications  obtained  have  always  seemed  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  mentality  of  the  group,  or,  when  they  are 
heterogeneous,  from  spirits  of  an  incomprehensible  nature. 
The  being  evoked  soon  vanishes  when  one  insists  on  pushing 
him  to  the  wall  and  having  the  heart  out  of  his  mystery. 
And  then  my  greatest  hope  has  been  deceived,  that  hope  of 
my  twentieth  year,  when  I  would  so  gladly  have  received 
celestial  light  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  plurality  of  worlds. 
The  spirits  have  taught  us  nothing. 

*  See  my  remarks  in  The  Unknoicn,  pp.  290-294. 


EXPLAXATOEY  HYPOTHESES     437 

^Nevertheless,  the  agents  seem  sometimes  to  be  independent. 
Crookes  mentions  having  seen  Miss  Fox  write  automatically 
a  communication  for  one  of  her  sitters  while  another  com- 
munication upon  another  subject  was  given  to  her  for  a 
second  person  by  means  of  the  alphabet  and  by  raps,  and 
all  the  while  she  w^as  chatting  with  a  third  person  upon  an- 
other subject  totally  different  from  the  other  two.  Does  this 
remarkable  fact  prove  with  certainty  the  action  of  a  spirit 
other  than  that  of  the  medium  ? 

The  same  scientist  mentions  that,  during  one  of  his  seances, 
a  little  rod  crossed  the  table,  in  full  light,  and  came  and 
rapped  his  hand,  giving  him  a  communication  by  following 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet  spelled  out  by  him.  The  other 
end  of  the  rod  rested  on  the  table  at  a  certain  distance  from 
the  hand  of  the  medium  Home. 

This  case  seems  to  me,  as  well  as  to  Crookes,  more  con- 
clusively in  favor  of  an  exterior  spirit,  so  much  the  more 
since  the  experimenter  having  asked  that  the  raps  be  given  by 
the  Morse  telegraphic  code,  another  message  was  thus  rapped 
out.  I  also  remember  that  the  learned  chemist  mentions  that 
the  word  "  however "  hidden  by  his  finger,  upon  a  news- 
paper, and  unknown  even  to  himseK,  was  rapped  out  by  a 
little  rod. 

Wallace  also  mentions  a  name  written  upon  a  piece  of 
paper  fastened  by  him  under  the  central  leg  of  the  experi- 
ment table ;  Joncieres,  a  water-color  correctly  painted  in  com- 
plete darkness,  and  a  musical  theme  written  with  a  pencil; 
M.  Castex  Degrange,  the  announcement  of  a  death,  and  the 
place  where  a  lost  object  might  be  found.  We  have  also  seen 
sentences  dictated  either  backwards  or  in  such  a  way  that 
every  other  letter  only  must  be  read  to  get  the  sense,  or  else 
by  strange  combinations  showing  the  action  of  an  unknown 
intellect.     We  have  a  thousand  examples  of  this  kind. 

But  if  the  mind  of  the  medium  may  liberate  itself  and 


438  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  TORCES 

appear  in  an  extra-normal  state,  why  might  it  not  be  this 
mind  which  acts  ?  Do  we  not  have  several  distinct  person- 
alities in  our  dreams?  If  thev  could  dynamically  appear, 
would  they  not  act  somewhat  in  this  way  ? 

We  ought  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  these  phenomena 
are  of  a  mixed  character.  They  are  at  once  physical  and 
psychical,  material  and  intellectual,  are  not  always  produced 
by  our  conscious  will,  and  are  rather  the  subject  of  ohsena- 
tion  than  experiment. 

It  is  expedient  to  insist  on  this  characteristic.  I  one  day, 
(January  31,  1901)  heard  E.  Duclaux,  member  of  the  In- 
stitute, director  of  the  Pasteur  Institute,  express  the  fol- 
lowing confused  idea  (an  idea  held  by  so  many  physicists  and 
so  many  chemists),  in  a  company  which  was  yet  quite  com- 
petent to  discuss  these  phenomena :  '*  There  is  no  scientific 
fact  except  a  fact  which  can  be  reproduced  at  will.''  *  What 
a  singular  reasoning!  The  witnesses  of  the  fall  of  a  meteor 
bring  us  an  aerolite  which  has  just  fallen  from  the  sky  and 
been  dug  up,  all  hot,  from  the  hole  it  had  made  in  the 
ground-  "  Error !  illusion !  ^'  we  ought  to  reply :  ''  We  shall 
only  believe  when  you  repeat  the  experiment," 

They  bring  to  us  the  body  of  a  man  killed  by  a  stroke  of 
lightning,  stripped  of  his  clothes,  and  shaved  as  if  with  a 
razor.  "  Impossible !  "  we  ought  to  reply ;  *'  pure  invention 
of  your  deluded  senses."  A  woman  sees  appear  before  her, 
her  husband,  who  has  just  died  nearly  two  thousand  miles 
away.  We  are  asked  to  believe  that  this  is  not  so,  and  will 
not  be  so  until  the  apparition  appears  a  second  time. 

This  confusion  between  observation  and  experiment  is  a 
very  strange  thing  as  coming  from  cultivated  men. 

In  psychical  phenomena  there  is  a  voluntary,  capricious, 
incoherent,  intellectual  element. 

I  repeat,  we  must  learn  to  comprehend  that  everything 

*  See  Bulletin  of  the  Psychological  Institute,  Vol.  L  pp.  25-40. 


EXPLAJ^ATOEY  HYPOTHESES  439 

cannot  be  explained  and  resign  ourselves  to  waiting  for  an 
extension  of  our  knowledge.  There  is  intelligence,  thought, 
psjchism,  mind,  in  these  phenomena.  There  is  still  more  in 
certain  communications.  Can  the  observations  be  confirmed 
and  justified  by  assuming  the  mind  of  the  living  merely  as 
the  active  agents?  Yes,  perhaps,  but  only  by  attributing 
to  us  unknown  and  supernormal  faculties.  Yet  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  is  only  an  hypothesis.  The  Spiritual- 
istic hj^othesis  of  communication  with  the  souls  of  the  dead 
remains  also  as  a  working  hypothesis. 

That  souls  survive  the  destruction  of  the  body  I  have  not 
the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  But  that  they  manifest  themselves 
by  the  processes  employed  in  seances  the  experimental  method 
has  not  yet  given  us  absolute  proof.  I  add  that  this  hypothe- 
sis is  not  at  all  likely.  If  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  about  us, 
upon  our  planet,  the  invisible  population  would  increase  at 
the  rate  of  100,000  a  day,  about  36  millions  a  year,  3  bil- 
lions 620  millions  a  century,  36  billions  in  ten  centuries, 
etc., —  unless  we  admit  re-incarnations  upon  the  earth  itself. 

How  many  times  do  apparitions,  or  manifestations  occur  ? 
When  illusions,  auto-suggestions,  hallucinations,  are  elimi- 
nated, what  remains?  Scarcely  anything.  Such  an  excep- 
tional rarity  as  this  pleads  against  the  reality  of  apparitions. 

We  may  suppose,  it  is  true,  that  all  human  beings  do  not 
survive  their  death,  and  that,  in  general,  their  psychical  en- 
tity is  so  insignificant,  so  wavering,  so  ineffectual,  that  it 
almost  disappears  in  the  ether,  in  the  common  reservoir,  in 
the  environment,  like  the  souls  of  animals.  But  thinking 
beings  who  have  the  consciousness  of  their  psychical  existence 
do  not  lose  their  personality,  but  continue  the  cycle  of  their 
evolution.  It  would  seem  natural  therefore  to  see  them 
manifest  themselves  under  certain  circumstances.  Persons 
condemned  to  death,  in  consequence  of  judicial  errors,  and 
executed,  should  they  not  return  to  protest  their  innocence  ? 


^440  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Would  it  not  be  reasonable  to  suppose  that  persons  put  to  death 
in  such  a  way  that  violence  was  not  suspected  would  return 
to  accuse  the  assassins  ?  Knowing  the  characters  of  Robes- 
pierre, of  Saint-Just,  of  Fouquier-Tinville,  I  should  like  to 
have  seen  them  revenge  themselves  a  little  on  those  who  tri- 
umphed over  them.  The  victims  of  '93,  should  they  not  have 
returned  to  disturb  the  sleep  of  the  conquerors  ?  Out  of  the 
twenty  thousand  citizens  shot  by  fusillades  during  the  time 
of  the  Commune  of  Paris  I  should  like  to  have  seen  a  dozen 
unceasingly  harassing  the  Hon.  M.  Theirs,  who  was  really 
too  puffed  up  and  vain-glorious  over  his  having  first  per- 
mitted the  organization  of  that  insurrection  and  then  pun- 
ished it. 

Why  do  not  children  whose  death  is  lamented  by  their 
parents  ever  come  to  console  them  ?  Why  do  our  dearest 
attachments  seem  to  disappear  forever  ?  And  how  about  last 
wills  and  testaments  stolen  away,  and  the  last  will  of  the  dead 
ignored  and  their  intentions  purposely  misinterpreted  ? 

''  It  is  only  the  dead  that  do  not  return,"  says  an  old  prov- 
erb. This  aphorism  is  not  of  absolute  application,  perhaps ; 
but  apparitions  are  rare,  very  rare,  and  we  do  not  understand 
their  precise  nature.  Are  they  actual  apparitions  of  the 
dead?     It  is  not  yet  demonstrated. 

Up  to  this  day,  I  have  sought  in  vain  for  certain  proof  of 
personal  identity  through  mediumistic  communications. 
And  then  one  does  not  see  why  spirits,  if  they  exist  around 
us,  should  have  need  of  mediums  at  all,  in  order  to  manifest 
themselves.  They  surely  must  form  a  part  of  nature,  of  the 
universal  nature  which  includes  all  things. 

Nevertheless,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Spiritualistic  hypothe- 
sis should  be  preserved  by  the  same  right  as  those  I  have 
summed  up  in  the  immediately  preceding  pages,  for  the  dis- 
cussions have  not  eliminated  it.* 

*  Quite  recently  I  saw  an  account  of  some  phenomena  which,  rather 


expla:n^atory  hypotheses         ui 

But  why  are  there  manifestations  the  result  of  the  group- 
ing of  five  or  six  persons  around  the  table?  That  this 
should  be  a  sine  qua  non  is  not  a  very  likely  thing  either. 

It  may  be,  it  is  true,  that  spirits  exist  around  us,  and 
that  it  is  normally  impossible  for  them  to  make  themselves 
visible,  audible,  or  tangible,  not  being  able  to  reflect  rays  of 
light  accessible  to  our  retina,  or  to  produce  sonorous  waves, 
or  to  effect  touches.  Therefore,  certain  conditions  present 
in  mediums  might  be  necessary  for  their  manifestation.  No- 
body has  the  right  to  deny  this.  But  why  so  many  puzzling 
incoherences  and  solecisms  ? 

I  have  on  a  bookshelf  before  me  several  thousand  communi- 
cations dictated  by  ^'  spirits."  In  the  last  analysis,  a  dim 
obscurity  remains  hanging  over  the  causes.  Unknown  psy- 
chic forces :  fugitive  entities ;  vanishing  figures ;  nothing  solid 
to  grasp,  even  for  the  thought.  These  things  do  not  yield  us 
the  consistency  of  a  definition  of  chemistry  or  of  a  theorem 
in  geometry.  A  molecule  of  hydrogen  is  a  granite  cliff  in 
comparison. 

The  greater  part  of  the  phenomena  observed, —  noises, 
movement  of  tables,  confusions,  disturbances,  raps,  replies  to 
questions  asked, —  are  really  childish,  puerile,  vulgar,  often 
ridiculous,  and  rather  resemble  the  pranks  of  mischievous 
boys  than  serious  bona-fide  actions.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
notice  this. 

Why  should  the  souls  of  the  dead  amuse  themselves  in  this 
way?     The  supposition  seems  almost  absurd. 

We  know  that  an  ordinary  man  does  not  change  his  intel- 
lectual or  moral  value  from  day  to  day,  and,  if  his  spirit  con- 

plead  in  its  favor  than  otherwise  (Bulletin  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Studies  of  Nancy,  Nov.-Dec,  1906).  Out  of  the  eleven  instances  men- 
tioned, the  first  and  the  second  may  have  been  taken  from  a  cyclopedia, 
the  third  and  the  fourth  from  public  journals;  but,  in  the  case  of  the 
seven  others,  the  admission  of  the  identity  of  apparitions  with  tlie 
originals  they  purported  to  represent  is  surely  the  best  explanatory 
hypothesis. 


442  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

tinues  to  exist  after  the  death  of  his  body,  we  may  expect  to 
find  it  such  as  it  was  before.  But  why  so  many  oddities  and 
incoherences  ? 

However  these  things  may  be,  it  behooves  us  not  to  have 
any  preconceived  idea,  and  our  bounden  duty  is  to  seek  to 
prove  the  facts  as  they  present  themselves  to  us. 

The  unknown  natural  force  brought  into  play  for  the  lift- 
ing of  a  table  is  not  the  exclusive  property  of  mediums.  In 
different  degrees  it  forms  a  part  of  all  organisms,  with  dif- 
ferent coefficients,  100  for  organisms  such  as  those  of  Home, 
or  Eusapia,  80  for  others,  50  or  25  for  less  favored  individ- 
uals. But  I  should  hold  it  as  certain  that  it  never  drops  in 
any  case  to  0.  The  best  proof  of  this  is  that,  with  patience, 
perseverance,  and  the  exercise  of  the  will,  almost  all  the 
groups  of  experimenters  who  have  seriously  occupied  them- 
selves with  these  researches  have  succeeded  in  obtaining,  not 
merely  movements,  but  also  complete  levitations,  raps,  and 
other  phenomena. 

The  word  "  medium  "  scarcely  has  any  longer  a  reason  for 
being,  since  the  existence  of  an  intermediary  between  the 
spirits  and  us  is  not  yet  proved.  But  still  the  word  may  be 
preserved,  logic  being  the  rarest  of  things  in  grammar  and  in 
everything  else  that  is  human.  The  word  ^'  electricity  "  has 
had  no  connection  for  a  long  time  with  amber  (^AcKxpov), 
nor  the  word  "  veneration  "  with  the  genitive  case  of  Venus 
{Veneris),  nor  the  (at  first  astrological)  term  ''disaster" 
with  aster  (star),  nor  the  word  "tragedy''  with  goat-song 
(rpayo?,  w8^).  But  this  does  not  hinder  these  words  from 
being  understood  in  their  habitual  sense.* 

J 

*  As  a  forestalling  of  judgment  on  what  is  yet  to  be  demonstrated, 
the  word  "  medium  "  is  a  wholly  improper  term.  It  takes  it  for  granted 
that  the  person  endowed  with  tliese  supra-normal  psychic  faculties  is 
an  intermediary  between  the  spirits  and  the  experimenters.  Now  while 
we  may  admit  that  this  is  sometimes  the  case,  it  is  certainly  not  always 


EXPLAISTATORY  HYPOTHESES  443 

As  respects  explanatory  hypotheses,  I  repeat,  the  field  is 
open  to  all.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  communications  dictated 
are  closely  related  to  the  condition  of  mind,  the  ideas,  the 
opinions,  the  beliefs,  the  knowledge,  and  even  the  literary 
culture,  of  the  experimenters.  They  are  like  a  reflection, 
or  counterpart,  of  this  ensemble  of  ideas  and  faculties. 
Compare  the  communications  noted  down  in  the  house  of 
Victor  Hugo  in  Jersey,  those  of  the  Phalansterian  Society 
of  Eugene  !N'us,  those  of  astronomical  meetings,  those  of  re- 
ligious believers, —  Catholics,  Protestants,  etc. 

If  the  hypothesis  were  not  so  bold  as  to  seem  unacceptable 
to  us,  I  should  dare  to  think  that  the  concentration  of  the 
thoughts  of  psychic  experimenters  creates  a  momentai-y  in- 
tellectual being  w^ho  replies  to  the  questions  asked  and  then 
vanishes. 

Reflection,  reflex  action?  That  is  perhaps  the  true  ex- 
pression. Everybody  has  seen  his  image  reflected  in  a  mir- 
ror, and  nobody  is  astonished  by  it.  However,  analyse  the 
thing.  The  more  you  look  at  this  optical  being  moving  there 
behind  the  mirror,  the  more  remarkable  the  image  appears 
to  you.  Now  suppose  looking-glasses  had  not  been  in- 
vented.    If  we  had  not  knowledge  of  those  immense  mir- 

»o.  The  rotation  of  a  table,  its  tipping,  its  levitation,  the  displacement 
of  a  piece  of  furniture,  the  inflation  of  a  curtain,  noises  heard  —  all 
are  caused  by  a  force  emanating  from  this  protagonist  of  the  com- 
pany, or  from  their  collective  powers.  We  cannot  really  suppose  that 
there  is  always  a  spirit  present  ready  to  respond  to  our  fancies.  And 
the  hypothesis  is  so  much  the  less  necessary  since  the  pretended  spirits 
do  not  impart  any  new  facts  to  us.  For  the  greater  part  of  the  time, 
it  is  undoubtedly  our  own  psychic  force  that  is  acting.  The  chief  per- 
sonage and  principal  actor  in  these  experiments  w^ould  be  more  ac- 
curately called  a  dynamogen,  since  he  (or  she)  creates  force.  It  seems 
to  me  that  this  would  be  the  best  term  to  apply  in  this  case.  It  ex- 
presses that  which  is  proved  by  all  the  observations. 

I  have  known  mediums  very 'proud  of  their  title,  and  sometimes  found 
them  a  bit  jealous  of  their  fellows.  They  were  convinced  that  they  had 
been  chosen  by  Saint  Augustine,  Saint  Paul,  and  even  Jesus  Christ. 
They  believed  in  the  grace  of  the  Most  High  and  claimed  (not  without 
reason  too)  that,  coming  from  other  hands,  these  signatures  were  to 
be  suspected.     There  is  no  sense  in  these  rivalries. 


444  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOKCES 

rors  which  reflect  whole  apartments  and  the  visitors  in  them, 
if  we  had  never  seen  anything  of  the  kind,  and  if  someone 
should  tell  us  that  images  and  reflections  of  living  persons 
could  thus  manifest  themselves  and  thus  move,  we  should  not 
comprehend,  and  should  not  believe  it. 

Yes,  the  ephemeral  personification  created  in  Spiritual- 
istic seances  sometimes  recalls  the  image  that  we  see  in  a 
mirror,  which  has  nothing  real  in  itself,  hut  which  yet  ex- 
ists and  reproduces  the  original.  The  image  fixed  by  the  pho- 
tograph is  of  the  same  kind,  only  durable.  The  potential 
image  formed  at  the  focus  of  the  mirror  of  a  telescope,  in- 
visible in  itself,  but  which  we  can  receive  on  a  level  mir- 
ror and  study,  at  the  same  time  enlarging  it  by  the  micro- 
scope of  the  eye-piece,  perhaps  approaches  nearer  to  that 
which  seems  to  be  produced  by  the  concentration  of  the  psy- 
chical energy  of  a  group  of  persons.  We  create  an  imaginary 
being,  we  speak  to  it,  and  in  its  replies  it  almost  always  re- 
flects the  mentality  of  the  experimenters.  And  just  as  with 
the  aid  of  mirrors  we  can  concentrate  light,  heat,  ether-waves, 
electric  waves,  in  a  focus^  so,  in  the  same  way,  it  seems  some- 
times as  if  the  sitters  added  their  psychic  forces  to  those  of 
the  medium^  of  the  dynamogen,  condensing  the  waves,  and 
helping  to  produce  a  sort  of  fugitive  being  more  or  less  ma- 
terial. 

The  sub-conscious  nature,  the  brain  of  the  medium,  or  his 
astral  body,  the  fluidic  mind,  the  unknown  powers  latent  in 
sensitive  organisms,  might  we  not  consider  these  as  the  mirror 
which  we  have  just  imagined  ?  And  might  this  mirror  also 
not  receive  and  reproduce  impressions,  or  influence,  from  a 
soul  at  a  distance  ? 

But  we  must  not  generalize  partial  conclusions  which  we 
have  already  had  much  trouble  in  defining. 

I  do  not  say  that  spirits  do  not  exist:  on  the  contrary,  I 
have  reasons   for   admitting  their  existence.     Even  certain 


expla:n'Atory  hypotheses         445 

sensations  expressed  by  the  animals, —  by  dogs,  by  cats,  by 
horses, —  plead  in  favor  of  the  unexpected  and  impressive 
presence  of  invisible  beings  or  agents.  But,  as  a  faithful 
servant  of  the  experimental  method,  I  think  that  we  ought  to 
exhaust  all  the  simple,  natural  hypotheses,  already  known, 
before  having  recourse  to  others. 

Unfortunately,  a  large  number  of  Spiritualists  prefer  not 
to  go  to  the  bottom  of  things,  or  analyse  anything,  but  to  be 
the  dupes  of  nervous  impressions.  They  resemble  certain 
worthy  women  who  tell  their  beads  while  believing  that  they 
have  before  them  Saint  Agnes  or  Saint  Eilomena.  There 
is  no  harm  in  that,  says  some  one.  But  it  is  an  illusion. 
Let  us  not  be  its  dupes. 

If  the  elementals,  the  elementaires,  the  spirits  of  the  air, 
the  gnomes,  the  spectres  of  which  Goethe  speaks  (following 
Paracelsus  in  this),  exist,  they  are  natural  and  not  super- 
natural. They  are  in  nature,  for  nature  includes  all  things. 
The  supernatural  does  not  exist.  It  is  then  the  duty  of  sci- 
ence to  study  this  question  as  it  studies  all  others. 

As  I  have  already  remarked,  there  are  in  these  different 
phenomena  several  causes  in  action.  Among  these  causes  the 
ones  that  supposes  the  action  to  proceed  from  disembodied 
spirits,  the  souls  of  the  dead,  is  a  plausible  hypothesis  which 
ought  not  to  be  rejected  without  examination.  It  seems 
sometimes  to  be  the  most  logical;  but  there  are  weighty  ob- 
jections to  it,  and  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  be  able 
to  demonstrate  it  with  certainty.  Its  partisans  ought  to  he 
the  first  to  approve  the  severity  of  the  scientific  methods 
which  we  apply  in  our  studies  of  the  phenomena,  for  Spirit- 
ualism will  receive  thereby  so  much  the  more  solid  a  found- 
ation and  will  have  so  much  the  more  value.  The  illusions 
and  the  artless  faith  of  simple  souls  cannot  give  it  any  more 
solid  and  substantial  basis.  The  religion  of  the  future  will 
be  the  religion  of  science.     There  is  only  one  kind  of  truth. 


446  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Sometimes  authors  are  made  to  say  that  which  they  have 
never  said.  For  my  part,  I  have  had  frequent  proof  of  this, 
notably  in  the  case  of  Spiritualism.  I  should  not  be  sur- 
prised if  certain  interpretations  of  the  pages  which  precede 
should  come  to  light,  shaped  into  the  opinion  that  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  existence  of  spirits.  Yet  it  will  be  impossible  to 
find  any  affirmation  of  this  kind  in  this  work,  or  in  any  other 
published  by  me.  What  I  say  is  that  the  physical  phenomena 
studied  in  these  pages  do  not  'prove  the  existence  of  spirits, 
and  may  probably  be  explained  without  them, —  that  is,  by 
unknown  forces  emanating  from  the  experimenters,  and  es- 
pecially from  mediums.  But  these  phenomena  indicate,  at 
the  same  time,  the  existence  of  a  psychical  atmosphere  or 
environment. 

What  is  this  environment?  It  is  indeed  very  difficult  to 
get  a  true  idea  of  it,  since  we  are  not  able  to  apprehend  it  by 
any  of  our  senses.  It  is  also  very  difficult  not  to  admit  it  in 
view  of  the  multitude  of  psychical  phenomena.  If  we  admit 
the  survival  of  individual  souls,  what  becomes  of  these  souls  ? 
Where  are  they?  It  may  be  replied  that  the  conditions  of 
space  and  of  time  in  which  our  material  senses  exist  do  not 
represent  the  real  nature  of  space  and  time,  that  our  esti- 
mates and  our  measures  are  essentially  relative,  that  the  soul, 
the  spirit,  the  thinking  entity,  does  not  occupy  space.  Still, 
we  may  consider  also  that  pure  spirit  does  not  exist,  that 
it  is  attached  to  a  substance  occupying  a  certain  point.  We 
may  also  consider  that  all  souls  are  not  equal ;  that  there  is 
a  superior  and  inferior  class ;  that  certain  human  beings  are 
scarcely  conscious  of  their  existence ;  that  superior  souls,  be- 
ing self-conscious,  as  well  after  death  as  during  life,  pre- 
serve their  entire  individuality,  have  the  power  of  continuing 
their  evolution,  of  voyaging  from  world  to  world  and  adding 
to  their  moral  and  intellectual  growth  by  successive  rein- 
carnations.    But  the  others,  the  unconscious  souls,  are  they 


EXPLA^^ATOEY  HYPOTHESES  447 

h  more  advanced  the  day  after   death  than  the  day  before  ? 
;  Why  should  death  bestow  upon  them  any  perfection  ?     Why 
should  it  make  a  genius  out  of  an  imbecile  ?     How  could  it 
make  a  good  man  out  of  a  bad  one?     Why  should  it  turn 
an  ignoramus  into  a  wise  man  ?     How  could  it  make  a  shin- 
j  ing  light  out  of  an  intellectual  nobody  ? 
I      These  unconscious  souls^ —  that  is  to  say,  the  multitude, — 
•  do  they  not  disappear  at  death  into  the  surrounding  ether, 
and  do  they  not  constitute  a  kind  of  psychic  atmosphere,  in 
which  a  subtle  analysis  can  discover  spiritual  as  well  as  ma- 
terial elements  ?     If  the  psychic  force  performs  an  action 
in  the  existing  order  of  things,  it  is  as  worthy  of  consideration 
as  the  different  forms  of  energy  in  operation  in  the  ether. 

Without,  then,  admitting  the  existence  of  spirits  to  be  dem- 
onstrated by  the  phenomena,  we  feel  that  these  do  not  all 
belong  to  a  simply  material  order, —  physiological,  organic, 
cerebral, —  but  that  there  is  something  else  involved,  some- 
thing else  inexplicable  in  the  actual  state  of  our  knowledge. 
But  a  something  else  of  the  psychical  order.  Perhaps  we 
shall  be  able  to  go  a  little  farther,  some  day,  in  our  inde- 
pendent impartial  researches,  guided  by  the  experimental 
scientific  method,  denying  nothing  in  advance,  but  admitting 
whatever  is  proved  by  sufficient  observ^ation. 

To  sum  up :  In  the  actual  state  of  our  Jcnowledge  it  is  im- 
possible to  give  a  complete,  total,  absolute,  final  explanation 
of  the  observed  phenomena.  The  Spiritualistic  hypothesis 
ought  not  to  be  dismissed.  Still,  w^e  may  admit  the  survival 
of  the  soul  without  necessarily  admitting  a  physical  commu- 
nication between  the  dead  and  the  living.  But  then  all  the 
observed  facts  leading  up  to  the  affirmation  of  this  communi- 
cation are  worthy  of  the  most  serious  attention  of  the  philoso- 
pher. 
■       One  of  the  chief  difficulties  in  the  way  of  these  communi- 


448  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

cations  seems  to  be  the  condition  itself  of  the  soul  freed 
from  bodily  senses.  It  would  have  other  ways  of  perceiving. 
It  would  not  see,  hear,  touch.  How  then  can  it  enter  into  re- 
lation with  our  senses  ? 

There  is  a  whole  problem  in  that  which  is  not  to  be  neg- 
lected in  the  study  of  any  psychical  manifestations  whatever. 
We  take  our  ideas  to  be  realities.  This  is  a  mistake.  For 
example,  to  our  senses  the  air  is  not  a  solid  body;  we  pass' 
through  it  without  effort,  while  we  cannot  pass  through  an 
iron  door.  The  converse  is  true  of  electricity:  it  passes 
through  iron,  and  finds  the  air  to  be  a  solid  impassible  body. 
To  the  electrician,  a  wire  is  a  canal  leading  electricity  across 
the  solid  rock  of  the  air.  Glass  is  opaque  to  electricity  and 
transparent  to  magnetism.  The  flesh  is  transparent  to  the 
X-rays,  while  glass  is  opaque,  etc. 

We  feel  the  need  of  explaining  everything,  and  we  are 
driven  to  admit  only  the  phenomena  of  which  we  have  had  an 
explanation;  but  that  does  not  prove  that  our  explanations 
are  valid.  Thus  for  example,  if  some  one  had  affirmed  the 
possibility  of  instantaneous  communication  between  Paris 
and  London,  before  the  invention  of  the  telegraph,  people 
would  have  regarded  the  assertion  as  Utopian.  Later  it  would 
not  have  been  admitted,  except  on  condition  of  the  existence 
of  a  wire  between  the  two  stations,  and  any  communication 
without  the  medium  of  an  electric  wire  would  have  been 
declared  impossible.  ISTow  that  we  have  wireless  telegraphy 
we  can  apply  this  discovery  to  the  explanation  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  telepathy.  But  it  is  not  yet  proved  that  this  explana- 
tion is  the  true  one. 

Why  do  we  wish  to  explain  these  phenomena  at  all  hazards  ? 
Because  we  naively  imagine  that  we  are  able  to  do  so  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge. 

The  pliysiologists  who  claim  to  see  daylight  in  this  mat- 
ter are  like  Ptolemy  persisting  in  accounting  for  the  move- 


expla:n^atoey  hypotheses         449 

ments  of  the  heavenly  bodies  by  holding  to  the  idea  of  the 
immobility  of  the  earth ;  or  Galileo  explaining  the  attraction 
of  amber  by  the  rarefaction  of  the  surrounding  air;  or  La- 
voisier seeking  (with  the  common  people)  the  origin  of 
aerolites  in  thunder  storms  or  denying  their  existence;  or 
Galvani,  who  saw  in  his  frogs  a  special  organic  electricity. 
I  put  my  physiologists  in  good  company,  surely,  and  they 
have  nothing  of  which  to  complain.  But  who  does  not  feel 
that  this  natural  propensity  to  explain  everything  is  not  jus- 
tified, that  science  progresses  from  age  to  age,  that  what  is  not 
known  to-day  will  be  knowm  later,  and  that  we  ought  some- 
times to  know  how  to  wait  ? 

The  phenomena  of  which  we  are  speaking  are  manifesta- 
tions of  the  universal  dynamism,  with  which  our  five  senses 
put  us  very  imperfectly  in  relation.  We  live  in  the  midst 
of  an  unexplored  world,  in  wdiich  the  psychical  forces  play  a 
role  still  very  insufficiently  investigated. 

These  forces  are  of  a  class  superior  to  the  forces  usually 
analyzed  in  mechanics,  in  physics,  in  chemistry :  they  are  of 
the  psychical  order,  have  in  them  something  vital  and  a 
kind  of  mentality.  They  confirm  what  we  know  from  other 
sources, —  that  the  purely  mechanical  explanation  of  nature 
is  insufficient  and  that  there  is  in  the  universe  something  else 
than  so-called  matter.  It  is  not  matter  that  rules  the  world: 
it  is  a  dynamic  and  psychic  element. 

What  light  will  the  study  of  these  still  unexplained  forces 
shed  upon  the  origin  of  the  soul  and  upon  the  conditions  of  its 
survival  ?     That  is  something  that  the  future  has  to  teach  us. 

The  truth  that  the  soul  is  a  spiritual  entity  distinct  from 
the  body  is  proved  by  other  arguments.  These  arguments  are 
not  made  for  the  purpose  of  injuring  this  doctrine ;  but  while 
confirming  it  and  while  putting  in  clear  light  the  applica- 
tion of  psychic  forces,  they  still  do  not  solve  the  great  prob- 
lem by  the  material  proofs  that  we  should  like  to  have. 


f 

450  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

However,  if  the  study  of  these  phenomena  has  not  yet 
yielded  all  that  is  claimed  for  it,  nor  all  that  it  will  in  the 
future  yield,  we  still  cannot  help  recognizing  that  it  has  con- 
siderably enlarged  the  sphere  of  psychology,  and  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  of  its  faculties  has 
been  once  for  all  expanded  under  grander  and  deeper  skies 
and  wider  horizons. 

There  is  in  nature,  especially  in  the  domain  of  life,  in  the 
manifestation  of  instinct  in  vegetables  and  animals,  in  the 
general  soul  of  things,  in  humanity,  in  the  cosmic  universe, 
a  psychic  element  which  appears  more  and  more  in  modem 
studies,  especially  in  researches  in  telepathy,  and  in  the  ob- 
servation of  the  unexplained  phenomena  which  we  have  been 
studying  in  this  book.  This  element,  this  principle,  is  still 
unknown  to  contemporary  science.  But,  as  in  so  many  other 
cases,  it  was  divined  by  the  ancients. 

Besides  the  four  elements  fire,  water,  air  and  earth,  the 
ancients  admitted  a  fifth,  belonging  to  the  material  order, 
which  they  named  animuSj  the  soul  of  the  world,  the  animat- 
ing principle,  ether.  "  Aristotle "  (writes  Cicero,  Tuscul. 
Quaest.  I.  22),  "  after  having  mentioned  the  four  kinds  of 
material  elements,  believes  that  we  ought  to  admit  a  fifth 
kind  from  which  the  soul  proceeds;  for,  since  the  soul  and 
the  intellectual  faculties  cannot  reside  in  any  of  the  material 
elements,  we  must  admit  a  fifth  kind,  which  had  not  yet  re- 
ceived a  name  and  which  he  styles  entelecliy;  that  is  to  say, 
eternal  and  continued  movement."  The  four  material  ele- 
ments of  the  ancients  have  been  dissected  by  modem  analysis. 
The  fifth  is  perhaps  more  fundamental. 

Citing  the  philosopher  Zeno,  the  same  orator  adds  that  this 
wise  man  did  not  admit  this  fifth  principle,  which  might  be 
compared  to  fire.  But,  from  all  the  evidence,  fire  and 
thought  are  two  distinct  things. 


expla:^atory  hypotheses         451 

Virgil  has  written  in  the  ^neid  (Book  VI)  these  admir- 
able verses  which  are  known  to  everybody: 

Principio  coelum  ac  terras  camposque  liquentes 
Lucentemque  globum  Lunae  Titaniaque  astra 
Spiritus  intns  alit,  totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem,  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet. 

Martianus  Capella,  like  all  the  authors  of  the  first  cen- 
turies of  Christianity,  mentions  this  directive  force,  also 
calling  it  the  fifth  element,  and  furthermore  describes  it  un- 
der the  name  "  ether." 

A  Eoman  emperor,  well  kno^\Ti  to  the  Parisians,  since  it 
was  in  their  city  (in  the  palace  built  by  his  grandfather  near 
the  present  Thermes,  or  old  Eoman  baths)  that  he  was  pro- 
claimed emperor  in  the  year  360  (I  mean  Julian,  called  the 
Apostate),  celebrates  this  fifth  principle  in  his  discourse  in 
honor  of  the  "  The  Sun,  the  Monarch,"  *  styling  it  sometimes 
the  solar  principle,  sometimes  the  soul  of  the  world,  or  in- 
tellectual principle,  sometimes  ether,  or  the  soul  of  the  phys- 
ical world. 

This  psychical  element  is  not  confounded  by  the  philoso- 
phers with  God  and  Providence.  In  their  eyes,  it  is  some- 
thing which  forms  part  of  nature. 

One  more  word  before  closing.  Human  nature  is  endowed 
with  faculties  as  yet  little  explored,  that  the  observations 
made  with  mediums,  or  dynamogens,  bring  to  light  — 
such  as  human  magnetism,  hypnotism,  telepathy,  clair- 
voyance, and  premonition.  These  unknown  psychic  forces 
are  worthy  of  being  embraced  within  the  scope  of  scientific 
analysis.  At  present  they  have  been  almost  as  little  studied 
as  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy,  and  have  not  yet  found  their  Kep- 

*  See  the  Complete  Works  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  Paris,  1821,  Vol. 
I.    p.  375. 


452  MYSTEEIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

ler,  and  their  Kewton,  jet  fairly  obtrude  themselves  upon 
our  notice,  and  cry  out  to  be  examined. 

Many  another  unknown  force  will  be  revealed.  The  earth 
and  the  planets  were  circling  about  the  sun  in  their  harmo- 
nious orbits  while  astronomical  theories  saw  in  them  only  a 
complicated  whirl  of  seventy-nine  crystalline  shells.  Mag- 
netism was  encircling  the  earth  with  its  currents  long  before 
the  invention  of  the  mariner's  compass  which  reveals  them 
to  us.  The  waves  of  wireless  telegraphy  existed  long  before 
they  were  arrested  in  their  flight.  The  sea  was  moaning 
along  its  shores  ages  before  the  ear  of  any  being  had  come 
to  hear  it.  The  stars  were  darting  their  rays  through  the 
ether  before  any  human  eye  had  been  raised  to  them. 

The  observations  set  forth  in  this  work  prove  that  the  con- 
scious will^  or  desire,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  subliminal 
consciousness  on  the  other  hand,  exert  an  influence,  or  per- 
form work,  beyond  the  limits  of  our  body.  The  nature  of 
the  human  soul  is  still  a  deep  mystery  to  science  and  to  philos- 
ophy. 

It  seems  rather  remarkable  that  the  conclusions  drawn 
from  my  labors  here  are  the  same  as  those  of  my  work  The 
TJriknown,  which  were  founded  upon  the  examination  of  the 
phenomena  of  telepathy,  apparitions  of  the  dying,  communi- 
cations at  a  distance,  premonitory  dreams,  etc.  Indeed,  the 
following  deductions  were  drawn  at  the  close  of  that  volume : 

1.  The  soul  exists  as  a  real  entity  independent  of  the  body, 

2.  It  is  endoiued  with  faculties  still  unknown  to  science, 

3.  It  is  able  to  act  at  a  distance,  without  the  intervention 
of  the  senses. 

The  conclusions  of  the  present  work  concord  with  those  of 
the  former,  and  yet  the  subjects  studied  in  this  are  entirely 
different  from  the  subject-matter  of  that. 

I  may  sum.  up  the  whole  matter  with  the  single  statement 
that  there  exists  in  nature,  in  myriad  activity,  a  psychic  ele- 


I 


EXPLAltsTATOEY  HYPOTHESES  453 

ment  the  essential  nature  of  whicli  is  still  hidden  from  ns. 
I  shall  be  happy  for  my  part,  if  I  have  helped  to  establish 
by  these  two  works  the  above  important  principle,  exclu- 
sively based  upon  the  scientific  verification  of  certain  phe- 
nomena studied  by  the  experimental  method. 


i 


i 


INDEX 


Academy  of  Sciences,  its  scepticism  xvi,  19,  investigates  Angelica  Cottin, 
224  et  seq. 

Acoustic  Mediumistic  Phenomena, —  Cases  of,  71,  73,  89,  96,  112,  121, 
144,  163,  167,  183,  274,  292,  299,  369,  373,  374,  378,  380. 

Aksakof,  Alexander,  63,  151,  178;  cited,  55,  66,  188,  435;  his  ac- 
count of  alleged  spirit  communication  regarding  satellites  of 
Uranus,  50-52. 

Albert  the  Great,  xxi. 

Alcofribaz  Nazier,  anagram  signature  of  Rabelais,  q.v. 

Alterations  in  weight  of  bodies  in  mediumistic  phenomena  (including 
variations  in  scales  without  contact),  88,  153,  173,  199,  354,  413, 
414. 

Animism  vs.  Spiritism,  187  et  seq. 

Antoniadi,  M.,  report  on  E.  Paladino,  109-111. 

Apparitions,  419.     See  also,  Materializations. 

Apports  (objects  brought  in  from  outside  the  seance  room),  99,  112, 
186,  187,  292,  373,  378,  380. 

Arago,  178;  investigates  Angelica  Cottin,  223;  alleged  spirit  com- 
munication from,  389. 

Aristotle,  quoted,  450. 

Armelin  G.,  report  on  E.  Paladino,  103-109. 

Ascensi  M.,  143. 

Astral  body,  166. 

Astronomical  discoveries,  xvi. 

Automatic  writing  and  drawing,  theories  of,  26-30,  58  et  seg.;— methods 
of,  28;  by  Victorien  Sardou,  25,  46;— by  Camille  Flammarion,  26, 
47-49;  reflect  the  thoughts  of  the  experimenter,  49  ei  seq.;  by 
children,   274;    other  cases,  384-387. 

Azam,  Dr.,    141; Felida's  case,  59. 

Babinet,  M.,  266;    report  on  Angelica  Cottin,  224-227;   de  Gasparin's 

criticisms  of,  260-265. 
Bade,  Louis    ("Louis   Elbe"),   368. 

Baschet,  Ren6,  34,  98,  101,  103,  128;  arms  partial  materialization,  131. 
Basilewska,  M.   and  Mme.,   98,   101. 
Bianchi,  M.,  147. 

455 


456  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Binet,  Alfred,  188. 

Bisschofsheim,  Mme.,  101. 

Bleeh  family,  hold  sittings  with  E.  Paladino,  63-84,  173. 

Bloch,  Andre,  84,  93,  101. 

Bois,  Jules,  84,  103,  128,  203. 

Boisseaux,  Mme.,  173. 

Boissier,  Edmond,  27' 

Bourrer,  M.,  141. 

Boutigny,  M.,   114. 

Bredif,  C,  medium,  196. 

Brisson,  Adolphe,   95,  98,    101,   103,   114,   128,  200,  203  j   report  on  E. 

Paladino. 
Brisson,  Mme.  A.,  93,  95,  101,  103,  114. 
Buflfern,  Prof.,   151. 
Buguet,  medium,  196. 
Burot,  141. 

Cactoni,  M.  and  Mme.,  368. 

Calonne,  xvi. 

Castex-Degrange,  M.,  437;  reports  of  mediumistic  phenomena,  381-393. 

Charcot,  Dr.,  4. 

Chardon,  Dr.  Beaumont,  notes  on  Angelica  Cottin,  223. 

Chevigny,  Countess  de,  101. 

Chevreul,  M.,  266. 

Chiaia,  Prof.  E.,  first  obtains  impressions  in  clay  through  Paladino,  78; 
challenges  Lombroso  to  investigate  Paladino,  136. 

Cicero,  quoted,,  450. 

Claretie,  Jules,  45,  98;  report  on  E.  Paladino,  98-101. 

Coleman,  Benjamin,  334. 

Cook,  Florence,  medium  (afterwards  Mrs.  Elgie  Corner),  remarkable 
case  of  materialization,  334;   investigated  by  Crookes,  335-347. 

Cottin,  Angelica,  the  Electric  Girl,  219;  Dr.  Tanchou's  report  of,  220- 
222;  notes  of  M.  Hebert,  222;  Dr.  Beaumont  Chardon,  223;  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  investigates,  224-227. 

Coues,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Elliott;  report  on  mediumistic  phenomena,  401-405. 

Crookes,  Sir  William,  65,  121,  196,  297,  305,  358;  his  experiments  in 
psychical  research,  306-347;  his  mechanical  contrivances  for  test- 
ing such  phenomena,  308,  318,  319,  322,  323;  his  views  in  1898, 
347-351;  his  theory  regarding  such  phenomena,  408. 

Crystal  vision,  292. 

Cumberlandism,    171. 

Curie,  Pierre,  300.  ■ 

Daguerre,  an  anecdote  of,  11. 


li^DEX  457 

Dariex,  Dr.,  63,   173,  218^  368;    cited,  3,  210;   his  opinion  of  fraud  in 

mediums,  203-205. 
D'Arsouval,  Prof.,   360. 

Darkness  as  a  factor  in  psychical  phenomena,  10-13,  68,  89. 
Davenport  Brothers,  the,  xi,  xiii,  xiv,  xxi. 
Delanecj  G.,  84,  98,  101,  375. 
Delfour,  Abbe,  cited,  398. 

Delgaiz,  Raphael,  Husband  of  Eusapia  Paladino,  67. 
Desbeaux,  Emille,  173. 
Dialectical  Society  of  London,  its  organization,  289;  its  experiments  in 

psychical  research,  291-302;    Huxley  declines  to  join,  290;    Flam- 

marion's   letter  to,  302-304. 
Divination  of  Numbers,  240,  249  et  seq. 
Double  Personality,  an  hypothesis  for  spiritistic  communication,  58  et 

seq.;  Dr.  Pierre  Janet's  studies  in,  60. 
Drayson,  Gen.  A.  W.,  on  solution  of  scientific  problems  by  Spirits,  50 

et  seq.;  errors  of,  53,  55. 
Duclaux,  E.,  438. 
Du  Prel,  Dr.  Charles,  151. 
Dusart,  Dr.,  289. 
Dynamic  theory  of  matter,  427. 

Eglington,  medium,  196. 
Ephrussi,  M.,   101. 
Ermacora,  Dr.,   151. 

Faith  not  a  necessity  in  psychic  phenomena,  279, 

Faraday,  188,  259,  262,  266. 

Felida,  case  of  double  personality,  59. 

Finzi,  M.,  151. 

Flammarion,  Camille,  some  scientific  researches  of,  vi;  early  writings 
on  Vnknoicn  'Satural  Forces,  xi;  experiments  with  Eusapia  Pala- 
dino, 5-23,  63-134;  acquaintance  with  Allan  Kardec,  24  et  seq,; 
autohatic  writing  by,  26;  delivers  funeral  oration  of  Kardec,  30; 
experiments  with  Mme.  Huet,  36  et  seq.;  letter  to  London  Dia- 
lectical Society,  302-304;  his  "General  Inquiry"  concerning  unex- 
plained phenomena,  376;  some  specimen  cases,  377-405. 

Fluidic  action,  theories  of,  166,  179,  253,  258,  282,  422,  427. 

Fluidic  projection  of  limbs,  etc.     See  Materializations. 

Fontenay,  Guillaume  de,  3,  21,  84,  95,  368;  participates  in  Paladino 
sittings,  69-83,  123;  his  dynamic  theory  of  matter,  427-431. 

Foucault,  M.,  264. 

Fourth  dimension,  420. 

Fourton,  Mme.,  93,  95,  98,  101,  103,  114,  128,  202. 


458  MYSTERIOUS  PSYCHIC  FOECES 

Fox  sisters,  case  of  the,  34. 

Fox,  Miss,  automatic  communication  by,  437. 

Fraud  in  mediums,  194,  et  seq. 

Frauenhofer,  cited,  19. 

Fremy,  M.,  cited,  xix. 

Fresnel,  190. 

Fulton's  invention  of  steamboat,  xvi. 

Gagneur,  Mme.,  98,  101. 

Galileo,  alleged  spiritistic  communication  from,  26,  47-49;  Ms  erroneous 
theory  for  frictional   attraction,   188,   189. 

Galvani's  experiments  in  electricity,  xvi. 

Gasparin,  Count  Agenor  de,  305;  experiments  with  moving  tables,  229- 
253;  his  hypotheses,  253-258,  408;  his  rejoinder  to  Babinet's  nega- 
tions, 258-265;  Prof.  Thury's  comments  on,  268,  273,  276,  279, 
282  et  seq. 

Celey,  Dr.,  his  hypothesis  of  subliminal  consciousness,  434, 

Gerosa,  Prof,,  151. 

Gigli,  M.,  143. 

Girardin,  Mme.  de,  61. 

Gramont,  Count  de,  173. 

Grasset,  Dr.,  his  opinion  on  pyschical  phenomena,  409. 

Grove,  quoted,  xix. 

Guerronnan,  A.,  173. 

Gully,  Dr.,  334. 

Hallucination,  collective,  does  not  satisfactorily  account  for  phenomena, 

130,  179. 
Harrison,  William,  334. 
Hartman,  Dr.  von,  435. 
Hebert,  M.,  note  on  Angelica  Cottin,  322. 
Herschel,  William,  50. 
Herschel,  Sir  John,  cites,  50. 
Hodgson,  Dr.  Pvichard,  305. 
Home,  Daniel  DunglaSj  195,  437;  experiments  with  an  accordion,  121; 

Crooke's   investigation   of,    307-322;    324-334;    declares   Miss   Cook 

an  impostor,  343. 
Huet,  Mme,,  mediumistic  experiments  with,  36  et  seq. 
Hugo,  Leopoldine,  alleged  spirit  communication  of,  212,  et  seq. 
Hugo,  Victor,  61,  212,  443. 
Husson,  M.,  263. 

Huxley,  T,  IT.,  liis  letter  declining  to  join,  in  psychical  research,  290. 
Hyslop,  Prof.  James  H.,  305;  his  opinion  on  phenomena,  409. 


lOTDEX  459 

Impressions  in  plastic  substances,  420;  photographs  of,  76,  138;  cases  of 

22,  74-78,  158,  163,  184. 
Institute,  its  disregard  of  papers  on  table-movements,  263. 
Invisible    hands,    action   of,    418.     See   also,   Acoustic   phenomena,  and 

Materializations   (tactile). 
Intelligence  manifested  in  mediumistic  phenomena,  421. 

James,  Prof.  William,  305. 

Janet,  Dr.  Pierre,  60,  188. 

Joncieres,  Victorin,  437,  reports  mediumistic  phenomena,  378-381. 

Joubert,  M.,  37,  42. 

Jouffroy's  invention  of  the  steamboat,  xvi. 

Julian  the  Apostate,  cited,  451. 

Jupiter,  Sardou's  drawings  of  landscapes  in,  25,  45. 

Kardec,  Allan,  his  society  for  spiritualistic  study,  24;  death  of,  30;  his 

funeral  oration  by  Flammarion,  30-32. 
Kepler,  55. 
King,  John,  alleged  spirit  control  of  E.  Paladino,  71,  78,  141,  169;   a 

psychic  double  of  Paladino,  166. 
King,  Katie,  a  materialized  spirit,  141 ;  appears  to  Florence  Cook  and 

others,  334;   investigated  by  Crookes  and  other  scientist,  335-346; 

Home's  opinion  of  her,  343. 

Labadye,  Countess  de,  103. 

Lacroix,  medium,  196. 

Laplace,  51. 

Lateau,  Louise,  stigmata  of^  20. 

Laurent,  M.,  101. 

Lebel,  M.,  218. 

Le  Bocain,  M.,  114;  report  on  E.  Paladino,  116-118. 

Le  Bou,  Dr.  Gustave,  report  on  E.  Paladino,  101-103. 

Lemerle,  M.,  368. 

LeVerrier,  213. 

Leymarie,  Paul,  218. 

Levitations,  5-8,  33,  79,  80,  118,  414-416;  photographs  of,  6,  83,  156, 
368;  denied  by  one  sitter,  132;  the  flour  test  of  1.  without  contact, 
247,  248;  cases  of,  6,  17,  70,  73,  74,  83,  88,  91,  93,  94,  96,  99,  104, 
105,  111,  113,  114,  144-147,  154-156,  160,  164,  167,  174,  180,  183-87, 
204,  229,  232,  236,  238,  239,  240-248,  292,  354,  357,  364,  368-370, 
373,  379,  380,  403. 

L6vy,  Arthur,  200;  report  on  E.  Paladino,  86-92. 

Levy,  Mme.  A.,  200. 

Levy,  J.  H.,  289. 


460  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

Lewes^  George  Henry,  290. 

Lifting  of  weights,  etc.,  413.     /See  also,  Levitation. 

Lamoncelli,  M.,  147. 

Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  63,  65,  305;  his  opinion  of  Paladino's  phenomena,  167. 

Lomatsch,  J.,  372. 

Lombroso,  Cesare,  63,  151,  178^  188;  Prof.  Chiaia  invites  examination 
of  Paladino,  136;  investigates  Paladino,  143-150;  his  theories  re- 
garding the  phenomena,  150,  409.  ^1 

Louis  XIV,  a  fable  of,  43.  »|| 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  289. 

Luminous  mediumistic  phenomena,  cases  of,  74,  97,  105,  108,  125,  148 
186,  198,  371. 

Luxmore,  Mr.,   334,   335. 

Luys,  Dr.,  4. 

Mairet,  M.,  98. 

Mangin,  Marcel,  162,  173,  218;  his  opinion  on  psychical  phenomena,  410. 
Marcianus  Capella,  cited,  451. 
Marks  produced  at  a  distance,  167. 
Mars,  discovery  of  satellites  of,  55. 

Martelet,  Adele,  relates  an  incident  of  Alfred  de  Musset,  398. 
Materializations,  theory  of  fluidic  projection  of  limbs,  etc.,  121  et  seq., 
166,  198,  208.     Cases  of: 

(a)  Tactile:— of  hands  or  arms,  71,  72,  89,  97,  98,  101,  106- 
108,  111,  113,  116-118,  124,  146,  148,  160,  167,  174,  181,  186,  292, 
371,  374;  of  heads,  73,  89,  115,  161,  177,  187,  371. 

(b)  Visible: — of  hands  and  arms,  10,  73,  116,  159,  175,  185, 
292;  of  heads  and  busts,  21,  72,  115,  128,  177,  185,  366;  of  com- 
plete figure,  "  Katie  King,"  334-346. 

Mathieu,  Georges,  93,  101,  200;  report  on  E.  Paladino,  111-114. 
P.  F.,  37. 

Matter  passing  through  matter,  see  Solid. 

Maxwell,  Dr.  Joseph,  63^  172,  173.  Extracts  from  his  investigations, 
360-368;  his  opinions,  410. 

Mediums,  cheating  of  professional,  3,  207;  their  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious deception,  4;  use  of  the  word,  5;  their  will  and  health  as 
factors,  14;  pecuniary  temptations  of,  157.  See  also,  Br^dif,  Flor- 
ence Cook,  Angelica  Cottin,  Davenport  brothers,  Eglington,  Fox  sis- 
ters, Daniel  D.  Home,  Mme.  Huet,  Allan  Kardee,  A.  Politi,  E. 
Paladino,  Anna  Rothe,   Sambor,   Slade,  Mrs.  Williams,  Mme.  X. 

Mediumistic  Phenomena,  a  chapter  in  physics,  2;  effects  of  antipathy 
of  by  slanders,  15;  genuineness  of,  21,  184;  reflections  upon  those 
of  Paladino,  118  ef  seq.;  experiments  with  an  accordion,  121  et  seq.; 
confirmatory  of  magnetism  rather  than  hypnotism,  166;  always  of 


INDEX  461 

psycho-physical  nature^  166;  hypothesis  of  fluidic  double  (astral 
body),  166,  179;  fraud  in,  194  et  seq.;  agency  is  in  the  person,  not 
in  the  object,  254;  mechanical  tests  of,  by  Prof.  Thury,  269  et  seq.; 
by  Sir  William  Crookes,  306  et  seq.;  unconscious  muscular  action 
considered,  280;  no  indications  of  electricity  in,  281;  experiments 
of  London  Dialectical  Society,  291-303;  Sir  William  Crookes'  ex- 
periments, 306-347;  his  opinions  of,  347-351;  investigations  of 
Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  353-359;  of  Dr.  J.  Maxwell,  359-368;  of 
other  scientists,  368-375;  popular  ignorance  of,  406  et  seq.;  re- 
capitulation of  scientist's  theories  regarding,  408;  re- 
capitulation of  phenomena  with  Flammarion's  comments,  411-423 
et  seq.;  subliminal  consciousness  as  a  factor  in,  433  et  seq.  Dr. 
von  Hartmann's  hypothesis,  435;  Aksakof's  reply,  435;  of  mixed 
character,  438.  See  also,  Acoustic  phenomena.  Alteration  in 
weight.  Apparitions,  Apports,  Automatic  writing,  Fluidic  Ac- 
tion, Impressions,  Invisible  hands,  Levitations,  Luminous  phe- 
nomena. Materializations,  Movement  of  objects.  Ordeals,  Predictions, 
Eaps,  Solid  passing  through  solid.  Spirit  communications.  Spirit- 
ualism, Thermal  radiations,  Typtology,  Touchings,  Writing  pro- 
duced at  a  distance. 

M^ry,  Gaston,  84,  95,  375. 

Miller,  American  medium,  375. 

Mil6si,  Prof.,  368. 

Mind,  action  of,  upon  matter,  283  et  seq.,  365. 

Moli^re,  xiv.,  quoted,  264,  265. 

Montaigne,  1. 

Morgan,  Prof.,  297-359;  accepts  Spiritistic  theory,  409. 

Morselli,  Prof.  Enrico,  188;  investigates  E.  Paladino,  177-192. 

Mouchez,  Admiral,  197,  213. 

Mouzay,  Countess  de,  211. 

Movements  of  natural  objects,  in  mediumistic  phenomena,  411-416;  cases 
of,  9,  17,  70-74,  88,  90,  91,  93,  95-99,  105,  106,  108,  109,  111-114, 
125,  126,  144,  147,  148,  156,  157,  163,  165,  167,  175,  176,  181-183, 
185,  187,  234,  237,  271,  274,  275,  293,  295,  297,  299-301,  353,  354, 
358,  o59,  369,  370,  371,  373,  378,  382,  383,  398,  399,  403. 

Musset,  Alfred  de,  398. 

Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  63,  162,  305,  350,  on  Subliminal  Consciousness,  433, 
434. 

Newton,  cited,  19. 
Nus,  Eugene,  61,  443. 

Ochorowicz,  Dr.  Julien,  63,  162,  188;  his  studies  of  Eusapia  Paladino, 
76-78;  his  conclusions,  166,  409;  condemns  the  rejection  of  Paladino 


462  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

by  English  scientists,   168  3   his  explanation  of  her  substitution  of 

hands,  i70. 
Ordeals,  292. 
Ostwald,  Dr.,  arranges  stance  with  E.  Paladino,  15. 

Paladino,  Eusapia  (Mme,  Raphael  Delgaiz),  2,  3;  her  exhaustion  after 
phenomena,  7;  her  fraud  (conscious  and  unconscious),  10;  influence 
of  her  health  on  experiments,  15;  darkness  demanded  for  best  re- 
sults, 10,  68,  89;  her  personality  and  history,  67,  86,  87,  140;  Flam- 
marion's  estimate  of  the  comparative  authenticity  of  her  phenom- 
ena, 79;  unknown  natural  forces  evidenced,  80,  152;  investigated 
by  Flammarion,  5-23,  63-134;  by  Lombroso,  143-150;  by  Enrico 
Morselli,  and  Frangois  Porro,  177-192;  by  other  scientists,  at  Milan, 
151  et  seq.j  at  other  places,  162  et  seq.;  M.  Antoniadi  considers  her 
phenomena  fraudulent,  109-111;  unsuccessful  attempt  to  photograph 

fluidic  handj  123;  M.  L denies  levitations,  132;  Professor  Chiaia 

challenges  Lombroso  to  investigate,  136;  photographs  of  facial  im- 
prints, 76,  136;  her  spiritualistic  education,  141;  her  symptoms  dur- 
ing the  production  of  phenomena,  142 ;  her  sensations,  143 ;  Ochoro- 
wicz's  apparatus  to  control  feet,  164;  results  of  sympathetic  trance 
of  a  sitter,  165;  detected  in  fraud  at  Cambridge,  168;  an  incident 
at  Ochorowicz's  home,  168  et  seq.;  her  deceptions,  their  reasons  and 
their  relevance  to  phenomena,  194-211;  Dr.  Dariex's  opinion  of 
them,  206;  her  sensitiveness  to  suggestion,  207.  Reports  on  her 
phenomena  by  Dr.  Julien  Ochorowicz,  76-78,  166;  by  Prof. 
Chiaia,  78,  136-140;  by  Arthur  Levy,  86-92;  Adolph  Brisson, 
93,  94;  Victorien  Sardou,  95-98;  Jules  Claretie.,  98-101;  Gustave 
Le  Bon,  101-103;  G.  Armelin,  103-109;  M.  Antoniadi,  109-111;  M. 
Mathieu,  111-114;  M.  Palotti,  114-116;  M.  Le  Bocain,  116-118; 
A.  de  Rochas,  140-143,  174-176;  M.  Ciolfi's  account  of  Lombroso's 
stances,  143-150;  the  Milan  scientists,  151-161;  M.  de  Siemradski, 
163,  164;  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  167;  Sully-Prudhomme,  176;  Frangois 
Porro's  reports  of  stances  with  Morselli,  177-192. 
Recorded  cases  of  her  phenomena. 

(a)  Raps   (including  typtological  communications),  8,  13,  17,  70,  75, 

80,  105,  114,  144,  145,  147,  175,  203. 

(b)  Movements  of  natural  objects  {see  also  (d)  apports),  9,  17,  70- 
74,  88,  90,  91,  93,  95-99,  105,  106,  108,  109,  111-114,  125,  126, 
144,    147,    148,    156,    157,    163,    167,    175,    176,    181-183,    185,   187- 

203,  209,  210. 

(c)  Levitations,  6,  16,  70,  73,  74,  83,  88,  91,  93,  94,  96,  99,  104,  105, 

111,   113,  114,  144-147,  154-156,  160,  164,  167,  174,   180,  183- 
187,  204,  364. 

(d)  Apports  (objects  brought  in  from  outside  the  room),  99,  112,  186, 

187. 


IKDEX  463 

(e)  Alteration  in  weight  of  bodies  and  variation  in  weighing  appa- 
ratus without  contactj  88,  153,  173,  191. 

(f)  Thermal  radiations,  115,  117,  125,  186. 

(g)  acoustic  phenomena  (sounds  other  than  raps  q.v.),  71,  73,  89   96 

112,  144,  163,  167,  183,  209,  210. 
(h)   writing  and  marks  produced  at  a  distance,  167. 
(i)  impressions  in  plastic  substances,  22,  74-78,  158,  163,  184;  photo- 
graphs of,  76. 
(j)   luminous  phenomena,  74,  97,  105,  108,  125,  148,  186,  199. 
(k)   trance  speaking,  71,  160. 
(1)   Materializations. 

(I)    Tactile, —  of  hands  and  arms,  71,  72,  89,  97,  98,  101,  106- 
108,  111,  113,  116-118,   124,  146,  148,  160,  107,   174,  181, 
186;  of  heads,  73,  89,  115,  161,  177,  187. 
(n)   visible, —  of  hands  of  arms,  10,  73,  116,  159,  175,  185; 
of  heads  and  busts,  21,  72,  115,  128,  177,  185,  366. 
(m)   a  solid  passing  through  a  solid  substance,  107,  128. 
(n)    cases  apparently  produced  by  fraud,  200. 
Palotti,  M.,  report  on  E.  Paladino,  114-116. 
Palotti,  Mme.,  114. 
Pelletier,  M.,  220. 
Penta,  Dr.,    147. 
Phaedrus,  quoted,  xx. 
Phalansterians,  the,  61,  443. 
Phantoms,  419,  see  also  Materializations. 
Plautus,  xiv. 

Politi,  Auguste,  mediums,  his  phenomena,  368-371. 
Poggenpohl,  M.  de,  373,  374. 

Porro,  Frangois,  report  on  E.  Paladino,  177-192;  his  theories,  409. 
Predictions,  293,  384,  385. 

Psychical  research,  utility  of,  v,  viii,  2,  30-32;  the  sceptic's  attitude  to- 
ward, vii;    ignorance  of  critics  of,  xii,  xv;   scientists  unwilling  to 
recognize  phenomena,  18-20;  value  of  cumulative  testimony  in,  191; 
necessity  of  eliminating  fraud  in,  194;  society  for,  305. 
Psychological  Institute  invites  E.  Paladino  to  Paris,  3. 

Rabelais,  1 ;  alleged  spirit  communications  from,  38-40. 

Radioculture,  vi. 

Raps  {see  also,  Typtologj^ ,  their  connection  with  sitters,  22;  hypotheses 
for,  35;  Dr.  J.  Maxwell's  Studies  of,  360-364;  recapitulation  of, 
416-418;  cases  of,  8,  13,  17,  75,  105,  144,  145,  147,  175,  232,  244, 
292,  297-301,  353,  357. 

Ravachol,  alleged  spirit  communication  from,  213. 

Regnard,  quoted,   101. 


U4:  MYSTEKIOUS  PSYCHIC  EOECES 

Ribero,  M^  218. 

Richet,  Dr.  Charles,  3,  63,  65,  84,  93,  95,  151,  162,  178,  202,  305;  his 

experiments  in  Algiers,  375;  his  theory,  409. 
Rochas,   Count  Albert   de,   63,   84,   95,   162,  203,    289,    368;    cited,    3, 

135,  179,  188,  198;  his  theories,  409, 
Rodiere,  Mme.,  medium,  196. 
Rothe,  Anna,  medium,  217. 
Rothschild,  Ed.  de,  101. 
Roure,  Lucien,  cited,  398. 

Sabatier,  A.,  63,  173. 

Sambor,  Russian  medium,  his  phenomena,  371-374. 

Sardou,  Victorien,  178,  203,  208;  early  mediumistic  experiences  of,  25; 
letter  to  Jules  Claretie,  45;  report  on  E.  Paladino,  95-98;  partici- 
pates in  Paladino  sittings,  123,  124. 

Sayn-Wittgenstein,  Prince,  334. 

Schiaparelli,  4,  63,  82,  151,  178,  194;  letter  regarding  E.  Paladino,  64. 

Secondary  personality,  see  Double  Personality. 

Sergines,  M.  de,   101. 

Sexton,  Dr.,  334. 

Sidgwick,  Prof.  Henry,  305. 

Siemiradski,  M.  de,  162;  quoted,  163. 

SimmonSj  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Franklin,  368. 

Sivel  the  aeronaut,  alleged  spirit  communication  from,  213» 

Slade,  Henry,  medium,  66,  420;  his  fraud,  196. 

Socrates,  vii. 

Solid  passing  through  a  solid,  cases  of,  107,  128,  372; — a  natural 
parallel,  130. 

Solovovo,  Petrovo,  describes  Sambor's  phenomena,  371-374. 

Soul,  the,  XX,  82,  178,  188,  439,  452. 

Spirit  communications,  384-389;  erroneous,  51,  52,  57;  see  also,  Auto- 
matic writing,  Raps,  Trance-speaking. 

Spiritualism  (spiritism),  194;  its  immateriality  in  psychical  research, 
XX,  80;  has  never  taught  anything  new,  26,  436;  not  proven  by 
Paladino  phenomena,  166;  dilemma  between  animism  and,  188,  435; 
Porro's  opinion  of  its  relation  to  Paladino,  190  et  seq.;  de  Gas- 
parin's  arguments  againstj  285;  Thury's  comments  on,  285  et  seq.; 
spiritistic  hypothesis  accepted  by  Cromwell  Varley,  305,  409,  by 
Wallace,  409,  by  Prof.  Morgan,  409;  spirits  not  necessarily  souls 
of  dead,  431;  still  a  working  hypothesis,  439,  447;  arguments 
against  its  probability,  439  et  seg, 

Squanquarillo,  Joseph,  368.  j 

Stewart,  Prof.  Balfour,  305.  ^ 

Stock,  Georges,  50. 


INDEX  465 

Subliminal  consciousness,  Myers  on,  433,  434;  Dr.  Geeley's  hypothesis 

434;  does  not  depend  upon  organism,  435. 
Sully-Prudhomme,   173. 
Syamour,  Mme.,  101. 

I!  Table  movements,  411-413.  See  also,  Levitation  aud  Movements  of 
Natural  Objects. 

Taine,  quoted,  58. 

Tamburini,  M.,  144. 

Tanchou,  Dr..  report  on  Angelica  Cottin,  219-222. 

Tapp,  Mr.,  345. 

Taton,  M.,  368. 

Telekinesis,  61. 

Thermal  radiations  (sensations  of  heat  or  cold  in  mediumistic  phenom- 
ena), 115,  117,  125,  186. 

Thury,  Marc,  his  researches  into  physical  phenomena,  266-287;  his 
experiments,  269-276;  his  theories,  276-287,  408. 

Touchings  in  mediumistic  phenomena,  418.  See  also,  Materializations 
(tactile). 

Trance  speaking,  cases  of,  71,  160,  293. 

Typtology  (intelligible  communications  by  raps),  code  for,  8;  results 
generally  tally,  knowledge  of  the  experimenters,  14,  37,  57;  appar- 
ently an  extension  of  hand  and  brain,  33 ;  received  through  Mme. 
Huet,  37  et  seq.j  answers  to  unknown  questions  evidently  guess- 
work, 240;  specimens  of,  38-43,  70,  80,  114,  147,  203,  212,  237, 
292,  293,  297-301,  355,  356,  380,  403,  437.     See  also,  Raps. 

Unknown  natural  forces,  v,  xvii,  1-23,  2,  IS;  extracts  from  Flam- 
marion's  monograph  on,  xi-xxi;  evinced  in  E.  Paladino's  phenom- 
ena, 80,  192;  hypotheses  regarding,  81,  406  et  seq.;  danger  of  too 
great  scepticism  against  recognition  of,  188  et  seq.;  not  the  ex- 
clusive property  of  mediums,  442. 

Uranus,  the  satellites  ofj  spiritistic   communications  regarding,   50-57. 

Vacquerie,  Charles,  213. 

Varennes,  M.  and  Mile,  de,  95. 

Varley,  Cromwell  F.,  291,  297,  359;  accepts  spiritistic  hypothesis,  305, 

409. 
Vignon,  Louis,  98,   101. 
Virchow,  cited,  20. 
Virgil,  quoted,  451. 
Vizioli,  M.,  143. 
Voltaire,  1. 


466  MYSTERIOIJS  PSYCHIC  FORCES 

Wagner,  Prof.,  162. 

Wallace  Alfred  Russel,  65,  290,  297,  437;  accepts  spiritistic  theory,  409. 

W^atteville,  Baron  de,  63,   173,  218; — his  investigations  of  mediumistic 

phenomena,  353-359. 
Weber,  A.,  372.  1 

Wellemberg,  M.,  218. 

Will,  the,  its  influence  upon  phenomena,  273  et  seq.,  365. 
Williams,  Mrs.,  medium,  218,  219. 
Wolf,  M.,  218. 
Writing  and  marks  produced  at  a  distance,  167,  356,  371,  373,  379. 

X.,  Mme.,  mediumistic  seance  with,  211-216. 

Zeno,  cited,  450. 

ZOllner,  Prof.,  66,  178,  196,  420. 


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